Katherine - I really liked what you wrote about this on Sunday. We are very lucky to have someone like you on Lactnet who is able to put things into perspective, and explain it so well. It's useful to be able to stand back and look at what's happening. I guess many LC's are so engrossed day-to-day with helping individual mothers get *that baby* successfully breastfeeding before discharge, as well as the constrictions imposed by routines in hospitals, that it is easy to lose sight of this. (Home birth is sounding better all the time.) I agree with you about keeping babies with their mothers to encourage milk production. Isn't it a shame that the rush to discharge a mother so early leads to panic and the *need* to pump. Thank goodness this madness hasn't spread to Australia *yet* (it will most probably). We still have at least 2-3 days, or more in private hospitals to get lactation established, and rooming-in is the norm. I am not hospital-based, so I don't have personal experience here, but I believe some midwives hand express colostrum (as the volume is so low) and feed it to baby with a spoon while baby is being held close to the breast. Some mums are able to express it directly into baby's mouth. Much patience (read staff time as well as mother's) is sometimes required for these babies - which is often not available where staff are stretched to the limit (which they seem to be everywhere around here). The ideal would be to have an LC on staff who is able to spend the time required with these mothers and babies. In many hospitals here, though, lack of staff time often means the mother with a baby who is not attaching, is given a nipple shield. We find quite a few of these are sent home feeding only when on a shield. Often they have to search the pharmacies and baby stores on the way home from hospital for the *right* brand of nipple shield before they can feed baby again! And then there are all the other problems associated with nipple shields! But that's another topic! Joy Anderson IBCLC Perth, Western Australia