Dear Friends:
    I recommend 140 minutes of pumping in 24 hours, based on the DeCarvalho
study about weight gain and milk yield, where both groups of women breastfed
for about 140 minutes in 24 hours. (The women that bf 10 x a day for 14 minutes
had fatter babies after 2 weeks than the women bf 7 x a day for 20 minutes.) I
also think about the McNeely research that showed how prolactin rises after a
nursing bout. The Kung women that bf 60 times in 24 hours for 2.5 minutes a
feed had a total in 24 hours of 150 minutes.
    I have worked with women who ask me how much and how often to pump.
Someone really like a set schedule; others find a schedule uncomfortable. For the
latter, I have suggested pumping every time they think of their baby and/or
whenever their breasts tell them it is time. My thought is that babies can feed
for short lengths of time on a frequent basis; a woman who pumps both breasts
for 5 minutes every hour is telling her body to raise prolactin. Prolactin
levels stay up, and if she pumps again before they drop, her production should be
fine. If she will be more comfortable, and is more likely to pump like that,
why shouldn't it work?
    Where does the 200 minutes come from that Carol mentioned in her post?
What other evidence is there to base a recommendation upon?
    warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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