My objection is not at all to the existence of pumps, nor (shouting now) TO
THE WOMEN WHO EXPRESS MILK WITH THEM, but to the way they are marketed.  I
just re-read the last post I sent in this thread to make sure I didn't
somehow slam *mothers*, and I can't see that I did.  In my tertiary care
hospital I am grateful to have pumps available for the mothers who need
them, pretty much every day I work, and I have first hand experience being
separated daily for many hours from both my own nurslings for much more than
half of our total duration of breastfeeding.  For the record, in my book it
is the woman who determines whether she needs a pump, and I am delighted to
be able to help her in whatever way I can if pumping is the way her baby is
going to get her milk.  The only personal comment I will ever interject is
to tell her how much I respect the extra work she is doing, as I refer her
to the resources I have learned about through this list, to make life easier
when expressing milk.  I've no problem supporting women while being repelled
by the way pump companies engage in marketing aimed at them.

This year a new pump was launched, with the slogan, 'Freedom is born'.
Freedom from what?  Spending time in physical contact with the baby?  There
was no mention in the full-page ad for this pump in BIRTH earlier in the
fall, of the many good reasons there are to use a pump, even though it is a
professional journal.  There was no mention of the characteristics of this
pump which might justify calling it 'freedom'.  Just the slogan 'freedom is
born', as though the company had proudly pushed it into the world from its
corporate womb, and a row of pictures of mothers with apparently healthy
babies, holding them but not breastfeeding them, interspersed with pictures
of pumps.  I find it offensive that a company compares launching a new
mechanical device with the birth of a child, which I regard as almost
sacred.  I would not be bothered if they showed pics of babies who obviously
depend on the milk being expressed and fed to them, or of women away from
their babies, expressing milk, but they always seem to show big healthy term
babies, held by mothers smiling beatifically at them but conspicuously NOT
breastfeeding them.  Drives me nuts.  If there is a picture of a babe in
arms, it is obvious to anyone with basic knowledge about breastfeeding that
the baby is not latched on, feeding.

A pump company's interest in a woman lasts exactly as long as it takes to
sell her a pump.  Once she has purchased it, the relationship is over, apart
from her possible need for materials such as storage containers or the odd
replacement part along the way.  That is why it is so imperative to sell as
many pumps as possible to pregnant women - so the sale is completed before
the woman discovers there was no help to be had from maternity ward staff in
getting breastfeeding started and it didn't work out, or that breastfeeding
is so convenient or enjoyable that she doesn't feel like using the pump, or
that she could've waited and inherited her sister's or her best friend's
pump which is probably far from worn out, and perfectly safe for her to use
as well, despite the appeals to our phobias about contamination.  Or that
she could turn out to be one of the women who quickly learn manual
expression and find it even easier to accomplish than pumping.  Even in
Norway, the commercial magazines aimed at pregnant women invariably include
breast pumps on the lists of essential things to buy before the baby is
born.

We should expect pumps to conform to safety standards so women's breasts
don't get injured, that any product sold in the health care field will do
what it is meant to do.  I expect pumps to be sold without a lot of song and
dance, just factual information so I can make an informed choice about what,
if anything, to spend my money on.  At the moment I am not getting all those
expectations met by any pump companies on the scene.  I don't see that the
pump companies have womens' and childrens' interests uppermost.  They are
businesses, and as such they have to be concerned about their bottom line.
I don't appreciate their posturing as though they are motivated by altruism,
or as though their interests are entirely coincident with mine or the women
I work with, because they simply are not and it is dishonest to pretend they
are.  I don't even expect them to be!  As long as the product does what it's
supposed to do, I'm fine with it being available for sale.  I don't need to
feel all cuddly and oxytocin-y about pump companies in order to be able to
make up my mind about which one to buy or rent.  Quite the opposite,
actually.  Give me calm, reasoned honesty in business any day of the week.
Harumph harumph.

Rachel Myr 
Kristiansand, Norway

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