When I was hospitalized with pneumonia while nursing my 8 week old, our doctor told my husband to go to a local pharmacy and rent me a pump. He explianied that then I would be able to pump whenever I needed and not have the maternity folks take it away (small hospital-not many pumps). Maybe some of the larger hospitals wouldn't "allow" this, but it was a great chioce for us. And we never had to pay the hospital a cent for pump rental, and it was "my" pump so nobody else could use it. (Yes, I did keep nursing, but I was too ill to keep the baby with me and so had to pump when he wasn't with me which was all night and lots of the day.) Nancy Sherwood IBCLC, LLLL Perth, Australia