I think it's a good idea to use the word expressing. I believe most
published standards would indicate within 6 hours of birth. To me this
comes from  the days  when a busy postpartum nurse  would be setting a
mother up to begin using a pump  and the standard of care sort of allowed
for 6 hours to get that accomplished . However I believe it is becoming
clear that expressing is beneficial and important, as soon as it is known
that an infant is not going to be feeding effectively. Now, with many
hospitals doing mother-baby care and teaching hand expression asap,
mother's can begin hand expressing straight away and add mechanical pumping
as needed. I like hand expressing onto spoon at first several times or
first few feed attempts as it is low tech, milk not lost in the pump
parts,  way less cleaning and fussing with parts. (One can make a case for
prenatal expressing, even, in your situation.) I highly recommend Stanford
university's First Hour video. I don't have the link here but you can
easily find it.
Laurie Wheeler RN MN IBCLC
Gulf coast MS USA

             ***********************************************

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome