Teresa wrote:
>I expressed my milk by hand, and with a little practice soon
> became quite efficient and could get six to eight ounces in just a few
> minutes. (I always nursed my own baby first, before expressing.) I've
never
> used a pump myself, and I'm sure they are more efficient, but if money is
an
> issue perhaps some help with learning hand-expression might be an option.
It
> takes some practice, but it works

I also learned hand expression.  What some people refer to as areolar
expression for expressing milk for my 3rd baby. (yes, I breastfed my first 2
but I never understood that I had to achieve let-down before being able to
express milk and just thought I wasn't capable of pumping, lol)
When my 4th was in the NICU for the 1st month of his life I used many pumps.
I found that it took just as long to learn how to use a Medela manual as it
did to hand express and almost just as long to figure out the Gerber
Precious Care® and the Evenflo Press and Pump® enough to pump efficiently.
I could still express more milk in less time using hand expression.  The
only thing that was as fast, but easier was when I was able to use the
nicu's pump a WhiteRiver with the soft shield (although I found their manual
cylinder pump that when with it just as bad as any other cylinder pump.  I
completely understand that if this was all moms were trying to use away from
the nicu they were often giving up.)
I didn't really fully understand and therefore become really efficient at
hand expression until I read Dr. Marilyn Gramms' Breastfeeding Success for
Working Mothers.  In which she goes over great details about hand
expression, milk storage, pumping, co-sleeping, expressing at work,
reverse-cycle feeding, and more.  A truly great, often over looked book.
She also has a older out-of-print book that goes over every type of pump
known with descriptions of how they work along with reviews by herself and
others.  She talks about a pump that I have always wondered about since that
is very affordable and doesn't need electricity that she gave a really good
review about.  One of the things that really drew me to it was that she said
that it was easy for her to get the hang of it and that she could do it so
hands free that she even used it while driving once or twice.  It was called
the Ora-Lact.  Anyone here of it?  Know where I can get one?  This pump was
of very simple design.  Mother sucks on tubing for the suction to make it
work.  The tubing for the mother's mouth went through a filter and didn't
empty into the bottle.  Similar, I think to the old ones with a rubber bulb
at the end of the suction tubing.  OK, this was way more than I was going to
go into.  Anyway, Dr. Gramms mentions in the first aforementioned book that
it was common for mom to be able to express about an ounce per minute using
her "meals in minutes" technique of hand expression, which I found to be
true in my case.  An ounce per two minutes for a manual pump, which I also
found to be true.

I make sure to mention hand expression in my class first before pumps and I
also give a demonstration using my breast model as well as pictures from our
class flip book, which the name of eludes me at the moment.

Zena Gresham in Las Vegas @ [log in to unmask]
 WIC Breastfeeding Counselor
www.slingsnthings.com

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