Hi all, Was wondering if anyone knew of a reference indicating a difference in the composition of breastmilk if a mom is pumping and feeding vs feeding directly from the breast. I know we have discussed the potential change because of the baby's mouth directly on the nipple impacting antibodies, but does anyone have a reference for that? There's a good article by Schandler in the 1999 Clinics of Perinatology, but it primarily looks at the bonding issues rather than the changes in milk itself. Thanks for any help on this. I'd love to come up with a list of how (from a physiological perspective) it is different to breastfeed than feed EBM. There's an awful lot of emphasis on the part of many mothers on "just making sure the baby has breastmilk" not on wanting to "breastFEED". **************************************************** On another note, I was thinking about the article "Bad Mom" and was imagining the conversation she may be having with her child when said child is about 15: "Why didn't you breastfeed me? "Well, I didn't want to. Too 'uckky', don't you know? Didn't want all that hassle of sore nipples and leaky breasts. Phewwww." "But I thought they had people to help so that you wouldn't have problems with that." "Oh yeah, but I just really didn't want to bother." "But didn't you know breastfeeding was best for your babies?" "Yeah, but I figured it was just so much hype -- it really wasn't all that much different than the formula." "Gee mom, I guess you didn't really love me enough to even try it, huh?" Kinda sad, isn't it? ******************************************** On the third hand, and totally off topic, the wedding was absolutely fabulous -- couldn't have gone any better, was quintessential, free spirited Torrey Beth, and was wonderful. I'm still doing little happy dances about it all! The kids are in St. Lucia missing all this snow we've just gotten in the midwest -- and I'm not quite sure how to relate this to breastfeeding!!!!! Except that she will. Someday. (\__/) (='.'=) (")_(") Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC _Lactation Education Consultants_ (http://www.lactationeducationconsultants.com/) _My Mother of the Bride Blog_ (http://www.motherofbridebyjan.blogspot.com/) _Torrey's Wedding Webpage_ (http://weddings.theknot.com/pwp/view/co_main.aspx?coupleid=3216252686617334) *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html