Jane Kershaw comments that the story and my response to it seem skewed.  Of
course my response is skewed, since I was trying to make a point about my
fears of what this pump could mean.  

I refer again to the news story at
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=103908
on a new pump, just delivered and installed at Peter Hartmann's lab.  While
I am aware that journalists may not always get all the facts absolutely
right, it does say that this is the only machine of its kind in the world,
and it seems to have been designed with Hartmann's research group in mind. 
Here is what Hartmann is quoted as saying in the article:

' Key researcher Peter Hartmann said KEMH was the only hospital in the world
with such a sophisticated breast pump giving images of breastfeeding never
seen before.
  
“For the first time we will have simultaneous data on infant feeding,
including milk flow, the baby’s respiration rate and heart rate and an
assessment of the baby’s attachment to the breast by ultrasound and video
imaging,” he said. “The major advantage of this breast pump is that all
measurements will be precisely synchronised so that cause and effect
analysis can be carried out.” '

Sounds to me as though the million dollar pump combines a variety of
techniques to do synchronised measurements that have required a whole set of
different instruments to do before.  Anyone in Perth who knows more about
this?  The website looks credible enough, but I am not familiar with the
paper so can't vouch for their journalistic competence.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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