Thank you all for your rapid responses, support, suggestions and stories for my mom with extremely sensitive nipples --  am relaying everything to her by phone, as she too far for me to run over and visit.  (She happened to have her baby here because she was visiting friends when she went into labor).

Baby was just two days old at the time I wrote for help.  Mom is now pumping   an ounce plus, q 2 - 3, feeling very proud of herself;  breasts seem to be de-sensitizing with pumping; and mom is thinking about again starting actual breastfeeds.  She is set up with a lactation consultant in her area.

Chanita, San Francisco