I am a lactnet “lurker” and IBCLC working at a hospital postpartum unit. I decided to venture out of “lurkdom” to ask your opinions about a situation that came up recently. In the case of a mother who desires to breastfeed but has given birth to a baby with a poor prognosis, how soon, if at all, do you recommend that she begin expressing breastmilk for her baby? I checked the archives and was able to find recommendations for a baby that has died, but what about a baby who does not have a lethal defect or illness, but is not doing very well? Recently there was a mother facing this situation on our unit. The nurse caring for her confronted me and told me that it was cruel to bring in a pump and teach her how to express milk because it would give her false hope and intensify her grief if her baby dies. Are any of you aware of any research out there to support this viewpoint? Does expressing breastmilk for a baby really make it more painful if the baby dies? My opinion is that the mother should be given the option to express her milk for her baby, and that her choice should be respected either way. I personally have not been in the situation of potentially having a baby die, but I wonder if avoiding the topic of pumping will really protect her from painful feelings and false hope. I think it would be an extremely painful situation no matter what happens. So what do you say? Am I totally off my rocker? Are you aware of any research in this area? Do you think it is better for her to wait a day before pumping just to see how her baby is doing before deciding whether to start expressing milk? Thanks, Christy Van Orman, RN, IBCLC Salt Lake City, Utah _________________________________________________________________ Get a speedy connection with MSN Broadband. Join now! http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/freeactivation.asp *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html