I usually don't tell moms that it won't work, because there have been 
times that I have thought it wouldn't and mom made it happen!

What I do often do is talk about how lactation works, and see if we can 
think of a way for mom to work smarter, not harder, to borrow an 
advertising slogan. It sounds like the pump was not working well for 
this mom, or her body has some issue. Sometimes hand expression works 
better for getting milk out when a mom has low supply, and sometimes 
it's less cumbersome and mom can do it more often. So the first thing 
I'd encourage her to try is to take milk out by manual expression, even 
if she expresses onto one of her baby's lips to give them some happy 
experiences at the breast.

The next thing I talk about in a difficult situation is that I am with 
mom to help her in the way in which she needs help. "As long as you have 
resources to try, I'll be with you. And if you run out of resources, you 
can be sure that you did all you could and gave your baby the best start 
possible". Those sort of things communicate that the situation is 
unusually difficult, but still worth struggling with if the mom wants to.

Hope some of this is helpful.
Catherine Watson Genna,BS, IBCLC  NYC

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome