Discussion on pumping always puts up my frustration levels because so many mothers are coming out of hospital believing that pumping will solve several issues. e.g. partner or other relative can give her milk in a bottle when she is tired; cure for painful or inverted nipples; baby takes more quickly reducing times of feeding; she can see how much baby gets. Apart from the problem of baby getting used to bottles the mothers do not get told that it is the baby`s sucking that stimulates flow and supply and that if the infant gets most of the milk from pumping, of course the supply will drop. So many of my home visits which I do within the first days at home are dealing with this issue. In my opinion, it`s not the problem of the worst or best pump because I find that opinions differ about all the manufacturers, positive and negative. The problem is the lack of stimulation because of the over-use of the pump and the under-use of the simplest mother-infant interaction. One cannot stop the pumping and bottles instantly because by that time the baby is far more enthusiastic about the easier sucking from the bottles. So after working with the mother on positioning and latching,compression etc, I can only suggest that she starts every feed on the breast and only continues with the expressed milk when the baby gets frustrated and refuses to continue on the breast. We then hope that within a few days, the breast-feeding gets more established and easier for the infant and the pumping can gradually be reduced. But that doesn`t happen in one day and after several days of phone calls I hope to hear the good news that the pump has been discarded until the mother goes back to work or needs to pump a supply if she needs to leave the baby for a few hours. And of course to advise the mother to pump immediately after a breast-feed while the hormones are still humming! But why oh why is the pump so widely used while the mothers are still in the hospital? The mothers get so frustrated when they can only express a few drops with the pump and this reinforces the advice they are getting from their relatives, friends, neighbours and unfortunately sometimes the hospital staff: "You see you don`t have enough milk". Meanwhile a happy new year and season`s greetings to all those who have been celebrating the New Year, Yom Kippur, Festival of Tabernacles and Ramadan. Wendy Blumfield NCT Trained Tutor Prenatal Teacher/Breastfeeding Counsellor Former President Israel Childbirth Education Centre *********************************************** 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