Wendy and others have suggested time-honored tricks for simulating the nursing
situation when pumping in order to improve let down -- picture of baby, smell
of baby, etc.

However I know my experience -- and I've talked to others who were similar --
was the opposite.   If I thought about my baby while I was away from her, I
became stressed out and got no let down at all.  But if I was able to distract
myself completely from the whole business I let down fast and hard and got the
whole darn thing over with.   As a result I always had an easier time pumping
at work -- phones ringing, manuscripts to read, plenty of distraction -- than
at home in the middle of the night, where my room was filled with reminders of
my little one.   Usually I would sit a the pumps for a frustrating half an
hour until, close to midnight, my husband would come in and start reading me
interesting tidbits from the newspaper -- then before you know it I'd have
filled the bottle and frozen it and gone to bed.

THis is not to say that thinking of the baby doesn't work for many, even most,
moms -- only to remember to ask whether it is making a mom even more uptight,
and if it is to try something else.

Elisheva Urbas
NYC