The question about when to start mom pumping when baby can't be
immediately put to breast put in me in mind of something I just wandered
across in Sheila Kitzinger's book *Ourselves as Mothers: The Universal
Experience of Motherhood* (1995):

"In some traditional cultures babies are not put to the breast
immediately after birth, but they are either fed alternative foods or
breast-fed by other women for the first two or three days.  The mother's
colostrum is milked and thrown away, and may be considered poisonous. . .
.  It is often assumed that it must result in breast-feeding problems,
since in the West, women who, because of hospital practices, have to
delay putting the baby to the breast, are more likely to find
breast-feeding much more difficult than do those women whose babies are
allowed to suckle straight away. . . .  It obviously does not reduce
women's ability to breast-feed in traditional cultures.  It looks as if
the firm expectation that she will breast-feed successfully is much more
important for a mother than are any specific breast-feeding practices,
and that women can breast-feed under apparently impossible conditions if
they are convinced that they will be able to do so" (pp. 177-78).

Two questions come to my mind after considering this.  1) Is the milking
away of the colostrum important to the milk's eventual arrival, or is
this more determined by the placenta's absence (as we know, bottlefeeding
moms who never put baby to breast have their milk come in).  2) Does the
conveying the idea that "Oh you'd better pump or else you'll have all
these milk supply problems" then perhaps predispose mom to have problems
(assuming baby will be put to breast on demand once milk comes in).
Anyone have thoughts to share on this?

Let me clarify that I don't think keeping baby from the breast after
birth or supplementing a healthy baby during this period on the grounds
that the milk isn't in yet is a good idea!

Penny Piercy, MA, MLS
Accredited lay breastfeeding counselor
Bloomington, Indiana, USA

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