Hi all,
This post is getting away from plugged ducts, but I had some questions on
what's being said about pumps and whether they are effective.

I still don't understand, if a mom gets the same amount of milk when pumping
with two different pumps, how are they not equally effective?  How can we
say that the one pump gets milk from only some ducts but the other gets milk
from all ducts?  Assuming a mom gets the same amount of milk.  Isn't that
how we measure effectiveness?  I know that the moms I see define a pump as
effective if they get the amount of milk they want.

Another question I have is that according to the stats I've read, The PIS
offers the same suctions levels as the Lactina and the Classic -- the
difference for all three is only in the cycles per minute.  The classic is
48-60, the lactina is 30-60 and the PIS is 48 (that may be different now as
I believe it has different speeds now like the lactina).  It seems to me
that they are all pretty close and I would think that if one pump isn't
effective enough, to try another one.  Our bodies all respond to different
things differently and if the concrete stats are similar I tend to look on
it more as an individual variance. If I read the Breastfeeding Answer Book
(BAB) correctly, a PIS wouldn't be appropriate for someone trying to
establish or maintain (solely by pumping) a milk supply.  Since the stats
are so close, I thought that the reasoning was because the poor little motor
on the thing would fry much more quickly than if it were used only several
times a day.  I never for a minute believed that the PIS didn't have the
same suction capabilities or near to the same cycling capabilities.  So if a
mom understands that and wants to use a PIS and she's getting enough milk,
why would I tell her that it's not effective?

BAB states that Kitty Franz suggests that the way a pump cycles has
something to do with it's effectiveness, and I can understand that, but I
believe the assumption there is that effectiveness is determined by how much
milk is removed.  If I'm wrong, please someone help me understand.

Sincerely,
Cindi Swisher, RN, IBCLC

I felt that massage and the most effective
> suction/cycling possible
> from a pump was the best chance of achieving that.
>
> >Along the same lines, why the recommendation for the Medela classic when
> >she was already pumping enough for a playgroup with the pump in style?
>
> To more effectively remove the milk.  The Pump-in-Style may have been
> yielding a good quantity of milk, but was it actually draining as many
> ducts as possible?

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