I'm treading carefully because I have no initials after my name, but I have
spent 20 years in the field of communicating health information and working
with the media to correct misinformation around disease transmission.

And I've posted on this matter before on Lactnet, so I hate to sound like a
broken record.

However, I think it's very, very important for professionals to be using
proper data when advising moms about borrowing or buying used pumps. For
example, we have seen cases where moms have been told a used pump will
expose their infant to the risk of HIV infection. There is no evidence to
back this up, and plenty of evidence to the contrary - HIV, if indeed it
were present in the fresh human milk, is simply not stable and would not
survive in dried milk. Precautions taken in the NICU to prevent
cross-contamination are there because we are dealing with fragile newborns,
and with many women using hospital grade pumps where it is indeed possible
for fresh milk contamination to occur.

I think it's especially important that we consider relative risk when we
offer our opinions and when we seek out research to back up our advice on
the matter of women borrowing or purchasing used pumps in the general
community.

By all means, take efforts to get the best pump solution in the hands of the
women who need it, but if there is no alternative to a used pump, please
make sure these women understand the relative risks of not breastfeeding vs
the hypothetical risks of contamination.

-- Jodine Chase

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