When I went to the site with the letters to Real Simple, I was sad to read about the mom who had tried to nurse two babies, and then given up and gone to formula.  One of the first things she said was that she could only pump one ounce, at the most, which my understanding was that she accepted as evidence that one ounce was the most milk that was ever available for her baby.  Of course, I don't have enough details to judge but, from what she did say, I can't help but wonder if thjs was another case where pumping interfered with the initiation of breastfeeding.  I have seen many, many cases where I have felt that pumps have worked against adoptive moms and babies.

I think the liberal use of pumps in general, can work against an awful lot of moms.  There are at least two ways that it does this.  It can certainly mislead them, as to the amount of milk their babies could take directly from the breast.  But, maybe most of all, I am afraid too liberal use of pumps suggests to moms that their bodies are not capable of providing milk for their babies without some kind of intervention.  

Does anyone work with any specific set of guidelines for the use of pumps in a hospital setting?  I would think that very few mothers who give birth to healthy newborns would really "need" to pump.  

Also, I feel that many, many challenges can be managed at the breast, and that pumping, if used, should be seen as second choice, if baby is not capable of nursing, and almost never be used as a substitute when the baby could nurse.  I also suspect that, if supplementers were used more liberally, when supplementation was really necessary, rather than bottles, a lot more  nursing relationships could be salvaged.  Not only would more babies keep receiving breast milk but, because babies would be less likely to get hooked on bottles, and more likely to learn to suckle the breast effectively, fewer moms would end up needing to pump and bottle feed EBM.  

Aloha,
Darillyn

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