>Sticking my neck out as usual - if a used pump, parts carefully cleaned
(as in boiled :-) enables a mom to keep breastfeeding (maybe she can't
afford a new one), what's the problem?  Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

Rachel writes: "there are several diseases
potentially communicable via breastmilk.  Also, if there is breastmilk in
parts of the pump that cannot be reached for cleansing, there can be other
biologic material as well."

It is my opinion that if electric breast pumps are so high a risk for
contamination, then we should not be recommending them or selling them,
including new ones, to *any* mother. For surely her own infant is at risk
for the same deadly bacteria that we are cautioning a second user of. If
they cannot be cleaned well enough for a second mother, then they are a
risk for the woman who uses one that she has bought herself. And are
equally a hazard for this woman's subsequent infants.

And what of all of the studies that show that breastmilk is a *live*
substance which can destroy bacteria so remarkably?  That is the reason
that it can be left at room temp for a number of hours and in the
refrigerator for up to 8 days. And this is the same substance that kills
cancer cells as well.

I think that this all supports the cautions of formula companies that
pumped breastmilk is potentially hazardous to one's infant while formula is
a safer alternative.  We may be shooting ourselves in the foot by echoing
such claims.

Are these warnings "evidence based"? Has the "dried milk dandruff" been
shown to be an active contaminant? Has anyone pumped breastmilk with one of
these "contaminated" pumps to see if bacteria  from its motor survives this
remarkable substance? Is there data showing that babies who drank milk that
was pumped with a pump used by a women other than their mothers suffered
from bacterial infection as a result? If such studies have been done and
are published in a peer-reviewed journal, then we should set about
dissuading working mothers from using this equipment either used or new.
Until such studies are conducted in a reliable manner we are just speculating.

I think that we should exercise extreme caution in joining the pump
companies in declaring a used pump to be hazardous beyond just a few weeks
of use (during which time this dangerous dandruff could be deposited). I
think that the companies are either covering themselves or are trying to
sell more pumps or, more likely, both. We don't have to support these
efforts before studies are done to justify our positions.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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