HELLO old ILCA friends!!  First call of the morning left me with this
interesting question.  Have any of you thought of this before? First time mom
wanted to know if she had to "clean" her nipples before pumping if baby had
just nursed.  After responding I asked why she inquired?  Her reply:  Her
5-week old baby had nursed in the night for a very short period and she
immediately went to pump to relieve pressure and collect the milk for work.
Since  I had told her to be sure her sitter did not reuse a bottle of
breastmilk since bacteria  could grow due to saliva mixing with the thawed
(thus damaged from freezing) breastmilk she related the saliva on breast and
immediate pumping as the same idea.  She wasn't sure if she should save the
pumped milk or not.  It occurred to me that she did make a point!  What is
the difference?  Wet saliva on skin mixing into pumped milk vs saliva mixing
with breastmilk from a bottle.  Do we know that saliva goes backward into the
forward moving milk from the bottle nipple?  I will assume that Montgomery's
glands take care of "cleaning" the nipple area so I do not see that as an
issue.  I was just struck by the question which made me think about the
mechanism of the extraction of milk from the bottle.  No big deal but
comments welcome.

Vicki Honer ACCE IBCLE (Freezing in VA and wishing to be in FL with bouncing
breastfed 3mo grandson Tristan Evan)