Lisa this is a guess but...I often work with NICU Moms. Often (due to
reasons I would love to rant about, but not here) they do not get a pump to
begin with.
If, like your Mom, their babies are not nursing, the breasts are not being
emptied well, and they start to pump around day 5, they may suddenly get
LOADS of milk - because they are engorged. This may go on for a few days,
especially if Mom is only pumping a couple of time a day. They get
engorged, they empty loads of milk, they pump again 8 hours later...loads
of milk. Of course this is a misleading situation. Unless Mom starts
pumping rigidly every 3 hours, then within a week or so the prolonged
engorgement goes away and suddenly they have nothing! It's particularly
difficult to stress to a premie Mom how this supply, which looks like it
will feed her tiny infant for a year, will drop unless she pumps regularly.
So maybe your Mom's supply was falsely elevated, rather than drastically
reduced. If you get my point. (Sorry, rather late at night for clarity...)
Anne Merewood