Dear all: I think that the research doesn't really change much beyond how parents may follow the rules. Finish the first breast first is a good rule, but parents may sometimes need a little guidance into what "finish" means. That's all. I feel the research confirms the observations that have been made in the past, and really should push us beyond a rule- based approach into a cue-based approach, which is probably what occurred before we had a worldwide experiment with artificial infant feeding. Thanks to Cathy for putting some clarity on my fuzzy memories of the healthy proportion of milk drained from the research by Hartman's group. Again, I don't think the specific proportion is as important as the fact that drainage stimulates supply, lack of drainage tamps it down. Paula Mieier's work was done in a NICU setting with very tiny premature infants. She didn't specifically encourage breastfeeding, she did encourage pumping which actually led to some breastfeeding in mothers who would never otherwise have considered it. That is very different from full tern infants whose mothers are breastfeeding and should not be extrapolated to that population. The quantities that the mothers were pumping enabled them to "lactoengineer" a very different milk than what one could accomplish merely by one sided versus two sided feedings. In fact, I'm hoping Nancy Wight might pipe up on this one. I remember one of her one liners to the effect that merely increasing the fat content only created fat babies, not healthier babies. Very premature infants need much more support to compensate for lack of uterine time. Best, Susan Burger *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome