Hi all! Has anyone ever seen a woman get into a physical or emotional state from pumping to build up supply or to keep her milk supply that she is unable to sleep at night? I'm working with a Mom who so desparately wants to breastfeed that she pumps or nurses every 2 hours and even at night. She is not tired a night and does not sleep much, that I know of during the day. I always saw smiles on this lady until yesterday when some pretty grif cam to the front during my visit. My question is : can you get an adrenaline rush from pumping or from the stress involved? Her therapist asked me about this this AM. ( I had one other patient who had obsessive -compulsive tendencies who got into a frenzy over breastfeeding. Hers resolved but she drove me batty (sp?) in the process.) She was referred 2 months ago because her baby was not thriving at age 4 mos--observation of feeding showed baby to be latching on poorly, nursing ineffectively, and reportedly had been alwaus nursing like this. I did not know there was any hx if depression- my fault, I guess, but I thought my own coworkers at my clinic would of known that and alerted me. I set her up with a breastpump to help build supply and she also began giving some supplemental formula. I did not feel SNS would work because of my experience with it only working with the woman with a lot of support and/or better educated. Also the infant is so distractible with the other 3 cchildren home from school even if they are in another room. The breastpump really did help but we missed one visit, she has no phone, she returned breastpump too early and her supply dropped again. Infants nursing pattern does not change, in fact, has gotten worse. THis Mom is on welfare, 4 child, she had nursed her other three successfully, not longer than 6 mos. and really wants to breastfeed for at least give breastmilk for 1 year. SHe has been pretty depressed due to past issues and also the baby's father leaving her during the pregnancy, coming back and leaving again. She has a good therapist who has been visiting her since December in the home. There is a possibility of the psychiatrist prescribing Meds to treat depression and he would not allow her to breastfeed if he did so. THe RD, MSW, myself, and the PHN, LC in training will be having a conference meeting next week, to collaborate and ease transition from me to the new PHN when I leave the Health Department next week. Thanks for input on the question in the first paragraph. Cindy .Cynthia J. Church RN,BSN,IBCLC