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From:
Darillyn Starr <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 10 Jun 2003 18:14:42 -0600
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I just came from the Pumpmate site and, although there may be some technical advantages to their system, for some mothers, I have to say that I don't believe the manufacturer is driven by a commitment to breastfeeding. Several statements from their site ring in my ears, including "...Pumpmate allows me to have a normal life while breastfeeding..". When did a "normal life" for the nursing mother of an infant become defined as spending time pumping one's breasts, then leaving home, while someone else feeds her baby a bottle? Evidently, some people need to be reminded that the "normal" life of a new mother is centered around the care and nurturing of the infant. It has been that way throughout the millennia that mankind has existed, and for even longer, in the animal world.  It concerns me greatly that breastfeeding is becoming so artificial. Women in industrialized countries increasingly see breast pumps as necessary, and feeding from a bottle as normal. Even in the world of adoption, we have recently seen a trend where success is defined as ounces of milk that can be pumped, regardless of whether the adopted baby, who has an even greater need for nurturing than a baby who remains with his biological mother, is actually spending much time at the breast. 

What are others' feelings about this issue? I personally feel that one way to preserve the art of mothering a baby at the breast is to avoid using pumping as the first line of defense in dealing with supply problems, except in cases where the mother has a specific need to be away from her baby on a regular basis, or the baby is incapable of providing enough suckling stimulation. For many kinds of problems, I suggest much more liberal use of the Lact-Aid, or other feeding tube device. It has to be used with some expertise, but it works! Don't forget that adoptive mothers who use such devices to start feeding and nurturing babies, even at breasts which have had no preparation to produce milk, of any kind, will produce a significant amount of breast milk, with no other form of stimulation but that. Another option I think is underused is, where it is determined that there is a specific need for pumping, and baby is present, pumping the opposite breast while the baby is nursing.  

Another specific concern I have about the trend toward pumping milk, rather than breastfeeding, is that I haven't heard of many mothers who have kept it up more than a year, if that long.  We have seen adoptive mothers who have spent as much as a year in preparation for nursing, then spend only a few months feeding some amount of expressed milk, with minimal time spent with the baby actually suckling the breast.  In closing my rant, I will retell an experience I have had in corresponding with some mothers in Kenya who had breastfed adopted babies. In response to my question regarding whether or not they had used breast pumps, in their efforts to induce lactation (on a questionnaire designed for women in industrialized nations), all of the Kenya moms had the same response: "I have never even SEEN a breast pump."! 

Hoping for the preservation of the art of mothering...

Darillyn Starr

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