I don't think it is the quality of the pump perse that does the trick of effective milkremoval. There is no suction that can suck the milk out of the breast; milk only flows strongly with a good letdown reflex. Women have pumped successfully with pumps that no-one in het right mind would qualify as fit for human use and I have seen women not able to pump more than 30ml with the finest state-of-the-art equipment. If a pump is able to initiate a good letdown or at least does not interfere with it it will work fine. As long as pumps mainly work on negative pressure not one will get milk out that is not willingly flowing.

Warmly,

Gonneke, IBCLC, retired LLLL, MOM in southern Netherlands

--- On Mon, 8/24/09, Lara <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Lara <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [LACTNET] limitations of pumps
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Monday, August 24, 2009, 10:45 AM

Virginia Thorley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Following posts by Susan Burger and Cathy Genna, 
> 
> "...Susan Burger mentions one of their studies of mothers pumping with the
> research pump (Symphony) that showed a significant proportion of
> successfully breastfeeding mothers did not remove 50% of their milk with
> that pump. That's NOT a good thing for their future milk production if they
> were to rely on that pump. Research is obviously ongoing to try to improve
> that performance. In my work with tongue-tied babies, some of them only take
> half or less than the milk mom can then immediately pump. ..."
> 
> - it would seem that even a top-of-the-range electric pump is only about as
> effective as some tongue-tied babies with compromised ability to transfer
> milk.  This is an important piece of information.

I think it's an important piece of information when used accurately,
which is that it's true for _some_ women. Not all.  As someone who has,
on occasion, pumped out 600 ml in a session with a hospital-grade pump
(after sleeping in), that would have to be one giant tongue-tied baby!

Individual assessment is absolutely crucial in a clinical setting, not
blanket application of information that applies to some women. (and of
course this goes in all directions).

Lara Hopkins

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