Jan swallowed some fear and said ;-):

<<I have found, in my
not-as-quite-vast-experience-as-Jack's that it is MUCH easier to transition
a
baby from a shield to the breast than from fingerfeeding and certainly from
bottle feeding to the breast.>>

Interesting.  I guess we all like what we've become good at, huh?
:::grin:::  My experience is going from bottle to breast, and am fairly
comfortable doing that.  My more stubborn cases are the nipple shield cases.
Fingerfeeding I don't see much of here ;-( so I can't comment on that.

<<perhaps because every mother
that is using a shield must agree to pump w/ a hospital grade pump after
every feed using that shield for at least 5 to 7 minutes. >>

AAHHH!  Well, that would make a difference.  I almost envy you <grin>.  Most
of my clients (I'm with WIC) are home from the hospital and don't have
access to a hospital-grade pump, so I have to play the hand I've been dealt.
A non-pumping mom using a shield that the hospital gave her (unless she's
occasionally using a manual), is what I see of WIC moms using nipple
shields.

<<But I've found the mothers are much happier if
they truly are desirous of bf to do it this way -- at least the baby is in
close proximity to the breast, rather than being fed by a bottle.>>

Interesting how different our experiences can be.  I *do* get them on the
breast as soon as possible -while they're still using bottles, actually.  I
often find that babies that are young enough (<1 month old) are pretty-much
willing (eager, in fact, if the truth be told) to go to breast after lots of
quality skin-to-skin time with mom (that close proxmity to the breast that
you mentioned).  I combine that with good teaching of breastfeeding cues (so
mom knows what to look for, and won't miss those serendipitous "teachable"
moments!), LOTS of practice at the breast, and slow weaning off abm once
baby is latching well.

<<I guess the moral of the story is that Jack and some others have one type
of experience, and I, and some others, have had another type of experience.
And our experiences aren't based on research, but on our experience.>>

My story has the same moral :-)  That's the beauty of this list, IMO - LOTS
of different types of experiences, shared to the benefit of us all....
Regina Roig Lane BS IBCLC for Miami-Dade County WIC, who is *finally* going
home!

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