Winnie wrote:
<<I like to put the suggestions in terms of making pumping as much like
having baby at the breast as possible.  I point out that "letting down" the
milk to a soft, cuddly baby is very different from a hard, cold, mechanical
machine!>>

Winnie, I love your approach of working via different senses to trigger the
let-down for pumping moms. I have pondered the same problem, and I have two
thoughts to offer.

1. Taste: well, other mammals lick their babies, don't they? We humans are
fortunate to have hands for cleaning our babies, but a mom who is not
separated from her baby---perhaps pumping for the freezer or pumping because
of a problem with direct breastfeeding---might try licking her baby's ears,
back of the neck, etc. This would stimulate not only via taste but also by
touch on the very sensitive tongue.

2. Simulate the baby's weight in her lap or against her chest: what would
happen if a mom who is separated from her baby tried holding something soft
that is about baby's size and density? The mom's handbag might serve if it
is the right size. Or of couse dolls are made for just this purpose...for
little kids. 

I remember a film I saw years ago. It was about grief after a childbearing
loss. This was back in the days when health professionals were only
beginning to catch on that they had a responsibility to understand feelings
and offer emotional support for grieving parents. The mother in the film had
a stillborn baby at or near term, who was whisked away and disposed of
before the mother saw or held her. She experienced a lot of problems
afterwards, but in those days no one acknowledged grief or spoke about such
a loss. Parents were encouraged just to put it behind them and try to have
another baby. 

The mother described a persistent empty feeling in her chest. She discovered
that this feeling was ameliorated if she cradled her wooden rolling pin.
When she weighed and measured the rolling pin, she found it was the exact
weight and length of the baby she had never held. It was as if some part of
her nervous system had been expecting her arms to be cradling something that
size and weight, holding it against the ventral surface of her body. Perhaps
it was the autonomic nervous system described by Kerstin Uvnas Moberg that
works to send input directly to the brain via the vagus nerve without going
through the spinal cord. In any case, once she accepted the fact that she
wasn't crazy, that the rolling pin actually made her feel better, she
continued to hold it when she felt so moved, and let it heal some of her
grief.

So if a mother is prevented by whatever circumstance from holding her baby,
why not try holding a surrogate baby? Especially one wrapped in her baby's
used blanket. Couldn't hurt...might help some moms...!

Thinking at the edges of the box today...
Chris

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
LLL Leader Reserve
working for WIC in South Jersey (Eastern USA)
Co-coordinator, Women & Work Task Force, WABA
 
 

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