>
Elisheva Urbas wrote:
> However, I have worked with several mother who were feeding their babies
> formula while mom was at work because they "just couldn't get any milk
with
> the very best pump" who have told me afterward that they were pumping with
> 2nd (or 3rd!) hand PNS pumps.    Some of these pumps have been used by
> several moms, over several lactations, for years, cumulatively.
>
> All of us who have used pumps for long times know that the moving parts
wear
> out, and the pumps become less effective

Dear Elisheva,
     The reasons you raise are why, when a mother mentions using a breast
pump, I ask her for details of the type.  I don't usually come across old,
secondhand electric pumps, and I do take your important point that these can
become ineffective with age.  Howver, I do come across "el cheapo" hand
pumps or inadequate battery-operated pumps.  Whatever the cause of the
ineffectiveness of the pumps, the mothers (as you said) don't blame the
pumps (that's technology!) but blame their breasts for failing their babies.
     I think a good deal more needs to be said about these issues.  They can
be easily forgotten, unless we keep reminding colleagues and Mums.
    Add to that, I suspect that as pumps have become more popular (marketed
more) this has had more than a little bearing on the sudden aversion towards
hand-expressing in my part of the world, where once this would have been the
first choice.  (Okay, that comment isn't evidence-based.)
              Cheers,
                    Virginia

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