To add to Kathy D's very thought provoking post about feeding frequency and
sleep, I read something that is very interesting. In the Human milk Banking
book  for Collection, Storage and Handling of milk in the hospital setting
(page.7)
It says " Delayed expression of milk is also associated with higher
bacteria counts in the early milk of mothers of hospitalized infants. This
is most likely due to stasis of milk. Bacterial counts dropped dramatically
with the establishment of the free flow milk."
This addresses young babies and early milk, but I wonder if this holds true
for mature milk as well? I wonder about the possible mastitis link?
I wonder if the woman who told me she threw out her pumped milk because it
was in her breasts for 8 hours (from China) knows something we don't.
I guess we need more research, I guess we should pay more attention to our
sisters around the world.
Star Siegfried, RN,BA,IBCLC No. California