In a message dated 10/20/01 1:27:54 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<< Am I too idealistic, am I old-fashioned, or am I missing something here?
I would love to meet a mom who wants and does directly breastfeed her baby,
with an occasional bottle for a night out, because I am feeling compromised.
When I started renting pumps, I thought they would be for my lactation
clients and working moms, not everybody who breastfeeds.
 >>

Patricia,
This is exactly why I stopped renting/selling pumps. My husband pointed out
that it might not be so smart to continue to pay for pumps just so I could
talk all the mothers who called out of using them. Very few women who called
for pumps were working moms (they bought theirs by mail order or in stores).
Some were moms who hadn't had babies yet and often were not even going back
to work or were going back at 4 mos or later. Most were moms who were having
difficulty bf, had not called an LC or LLLL, but were going to pump to fix
the problem or pump instead of fixing the problem. Sometimes, I could help
the moms, esp those who hadn't realized they could be helped. But, so many
were relieved with the idea of pumping that I just could not continue to do
it. IMO, once pump companies started to have their pumps rented by anyone and
everyone, whether or not they knew anything about bf, this trend took off
like wildfire. Maybe it was coincidental, but if all pump depots came with a
knowledgeable consultant, I think fewer women would just buy a pump with the
vision of pumping for 6 months or so and then, of course quit in a few weeks,
b/c it's really hard to do and besides, if milk is just a product, then
there's always "the next best thing" for a lot less work.
    I saw a mom Thursday night who told me all the nurses in the hospital
told her "from the doorway" that the baby was "doing fine". The baby had lost
about 8% by discharge, and had to be woken "roughly" every 2 hours. She used
the word "slap" to describe the way she was shown to wake the baby. She was
surprised at "how gentle" my approach to encouraging the baby to nurse was.
This poor baby had a bruised face from the trauma of her birth. Mom's nipples
were sore and a little pink, with some visible trauma around the nipples.
    Anyway, the mom's breasts were very soft and large (although milk was
coming pretty quickly). As of that day (the ped made the referral), the baby
had supposedly lost 12% of birthweight. I did not believe this--it looked to
me like a scale discrepancy, since the baby was awake, alert, good color and
skin tone and the ped thought she was healthy. She nursed, but had a hard
time opening her mouth wide (no suprise, considering the birth trauma).
Still, since mom did get her to nurse well with breast compression, I
suggested she do a lot of skin-to-skin and frequent feeding (baby is waking
often at this point), finishing the first side, using compression, etc. As we
talked, the breast she had just fed on was visibly refilling.
    Anyway, the next day, the baby supposedly gained 7 oz--confirming my
scale theory, since we are talking about 12 hours and the baby was not eating
that well. Even so, the dad told me they had bought "the best, top of the
line pump" and they had decided they would rather pump and feed bottles, as
it was hard to work with her small mouth, etc. I have to say that this
shocked me, as the parents seemed to be happy to be getting bf going, seemed
very responsive, mom said it felt really good to nurse the baby, etc. They
noticed how satisfied the baby was for the first time and mom had no pain.
    For some reason, women just seem to see this as a good "solution" --they
imagine it solves all of their problems. And they never seem to mind paying
hundreds of dollars (that's lots of money in other currencies, too). I think
this problem is one we need to pay attention to as bf advocates. (Of course,
I think we need to pay even more attention to the genetic engineering of
human milk--the whole breastmilk as product mentality is making marketers in
the AIM industry jump up and down in glee. And then there are the births
these babies are having in the first place).
Jennifer Tow,  IBCLC, CT, USA

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