Just a thought as I wait for my Email server to become disengaged.

Does anyone remember when we did not measure how much milk was in a pump
and we just looked at the size and tension of breasts and contentment of
the baby.

Along with other criteria such as creases filling out with fat, a baby who
keeps saturating and filling his napkins (diaper), good skin integrity with
muscle tone and elasticity tells us the baby is getting enough.  A mother
who actually heard the swallows and knows her baby has had enough by the
way he/she smiles after he/she has disengaged from the breast.  A mother
does not normally have scales at home so she needs something other than
weights to hang on to.


I get concerns about the "latching" on to breastpumps and the ignoring of
normal everyday baby behaviour and ability of women to breastfeed without
having to rely on breastmilk quantification and baby weights and
measurements.

I accept that expressing by pump is a necessary outcome of the busy woman's
schedule but there has never been a better substitute than the baby for
draining breasts.


[by the way I was in an American public toilet {?bathroom) and thought
napkin meant paper serviette so I paid a dollar in my absentmindedness
thinking to wipe my hands did I get a laugh and a surprise. Words Words
Words?]
Beverley Walker  Melbourne Australia