Two reasons for hospitals to give breastpumps:

Reason #1

I come from a little different perspective than most of you.  If I had been
given a breastpump when I had left the hospital with instructions on how to
use it, my first son may have gotten to breastfeed instead of being fed
expressed milk from a bottle for his first six months.  When my milk came
in, my nipples went flat and David couldn't latch on.  I called a LLL, who
came right over to my house and tried very hard to be helpful, but she had
never had to use a breastpump, and even though I had a good manual pump,
neither one of us could figure out what we were doing wrong, and why we
couldn't get it to work.  By the time my brilliant husband figured out the
problem, David had a strong preference for bottles and I never could get
him to breastfeed.  (If I knew then what I know now, I would have called an
LC for help, but I didn't see why I should pay someone to show me something
that is supposed to be natural).  As long as there is education along with
it, I think it is a good idea.  I needed one within a day or two of getting
home from the hospital just to pump out enough milk so David could latch
on.  I just needed the education of how to use it.

Reason #2

I know I'm not even really in the field, but I have to share this anyway.
One of my male students brought his wife and three-week old baby in to show
her off.  He and I had talked about breastfeeding earlier, so she mentioned
that she had been trying figure out her breastpump to see if she would be
able to provide enough milk for when she returned to work in three weeks.
She said that she was only able to pump 1/2 - 1 ounce or so, even though
she tried pumping at various times - before, during, and after baby was
nursing.  She was concerned that she would have to supplement when she went
back to work.  I asked what type of pump she was using, which led to a
discussion of what the interests are of ABM companies that manufacture
breast pumps, something that hadn't even occurred to them.  I sent them off
with a list of breastfeeding resources from LEAP which included a list of
LCs and pump rental stations and a smile on my face :-) (I sure am glad I
keep a copy of all that stuff at my office too!).  My student came up to me
last week and said they had purchased an electric pump from one of the
places on the list and were amazed at the difference.  Mom, Dad, and baby
are all very happy.  I know in an ideal world, moms would be able to stay
home for the first year (or more), but in reality, more moms are needing to
work and I'd rather see them have a decent breastpump and continue
breastfeeding than by a pump from the local discount store that's designed
to increase ABM sales.





 Donna J. Spannaus-Martin, Ph.D., MT (ASCP)
 Assistant Professor, Clinical Lab. Sciences, University of Tennessee, Memphis
 mom to David (8-11-92) and a still breastfed Timothy (2-13-95)