I thought it was interesting that research shows that mothers who pump in addition to breastfeed at least in America actually breastfeed longer than those that don't use a pump.  We do about 3000 births, have a 60 bed NICU and a 24 bed Maternal Special Care unit and we have 30 pumps between the 3 areas, including 2 that reside in L&D.

-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of laurie wheeler
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 7:29 AM
Subject: Fwd: pumps per hosp pt

 We do about 1000 to 1200 births but only 50% initiate bf. We do not have a level 3 nicu, but the moms whose babies are shipped need to pump, and we keep level 2 babies so those moms need to pump. There are also the moms who choose "just to pump." I sometimes give them a hand pump if the electric ones are being used or we have a premie mom about to deliver.

We have had 3 pumps for the last 7 yrs, and that has usually been enough.
We definitely needed those 3 and maybe a 4th. Sometimes we run out and fairly often a baby is admitted to peds and the mom needs a pump, or even in the ER or OP surgery. We just recently bought 3 new pumps. Now we have 6.

I think it depends, for your facility, on the nicu population, and the bf rate overall. You might want to document the times that a pump is needed and not available. That might help if you have to justify to your manager that a pump/pumps are needed in capital budget expenditures.
Laurie Wheeler

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