The WIC program in our county is benefiting from a 5-state contract with Medela for Lactinas and PIS in a tan messenger bag. They loan the Lactinas to moms with NICU babies, multiples, cleft palate babies, and the like.
The give a PIS to moms who must return to work or to school. It's theirs to keep but not to share with anyone else.
I guess the price they pay to buy the PIS is low enough that they save money over storage, inventory tracking, employee time and materials spent keeping the loaner Lactinas cleaned. So the Lactinas are the "hospital grade" and the PIS is for maintinaing "established" supplies.
Phyllis
---- Anne Nans <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
=============
I agree that the price of pumps for working mothers is out of the question for many. I live in an area where 40% of our patient population receives Medicaid. Sometimes they have less than $20 to feed their children for a week between paychecks. If they are working in a place like Burger King or the Dollar Store, a $300 pump is so far out of what they can afford, it's ludicrous. We do have a great WIC program with donor Lactinas, which is great. Why on earth, though, do we have these outrageously priced pumps that can't be reused? What a waste it is? I know there are other alternatives like small hand pumps, hand expressing, etc., but if someone passed on a barely used pump for a financially strapped mom and was able to obtain new tubing for it, I would look the other way, that's for sure. And what happens to these pumps? I'm sure many of them end up in some landfill--that's a great way to promote the sustainability of breastfeeding, right? I, too, get so sick of our throw away society here in the US, and companies that do not allow sensible reuse of equipment when, of course, it doesn't serve their financial interests.
Anne Nans, IBCLC, CPNPSackets Harbor, NY
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Phyllis Adamson, BA, IBCLC
Glendale, AZ.
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