I am fascinated by the discussion on safety of sharing pumps. There is something illogical about the recommendations to not share between mothers, but to reuse from one baby to the next with the same mother. If infact there is risk of aspiration/contamination, surely there could be aspiration in a current user and then with time and warmth (room temperature) increasing the possible bacterial count, theoretical contamination of the currently pumped milk. How can any milk be safe if aspiration/contamination is a real risk? Perhaps we should recommend that a mother use a new pump each time she collects milk (just to be sure). Or perhaps consumers should insist that pumps be protected from aspiration/contamination and then they could safely be used and safely shared or safely re-sold.

Another issue here is risk? Is this a real or theoretical risk? Have there been any documented cases of disease in a infant/child due to use of shared contaminated breast pumps? Is this a clever marketing ploy intended to increase pump sales? Is it an effort by the manufacturers to cover their legal exposure? Could there be recommendations to check the health status of the mother before re-sale? Most mothers in the US are screened for HIV and Hepatitis during pregnancy so it may be easy to check their records. How do we weigh the unknown theoretical risks of sharing pumps with the known risks of formula use and weaning? Curious minds would like to know...Cathy Liles

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