Lactnetters, >What you may be doing by >having the mom express often for "discomfort" is mimic the action of the >baby who gets to feed ad lib. That may, in fact, preserve the >milk-producing status of the breasts, but it would be so much better if the >baby just did it, and if the milk went into the baby instead of being >wasted. Especially in those early days and weeks when a big proportion of >the milk is still colostrum, full of wonderful antibodies. I cringe to >think of women expressing and discarding all that wonderful milk. :( From my own experience, I did think this myself. Isn't over-supply a common problem? I can imagine if I'd done this, my poor babies (and anyone within a 100 metre radius) would have been drowned! My body always seems to think it's providing for quads, and I think my baby's lack of nursing at first is possibly necessary to *reduce* my supply. I tried coping with the problem all kinds of ways with my first two babies, but by the third I'd got the problem hacked - I just nursed on demand (which was *very* infrequent for the first two days, despite a natural, homebirth and the baby never leaving my side), when I got engorged I had a warm shower and allowed the excess to drain naturally. My third baby was my biggest yet, and the fastest gainer - 91st centile for the entire first year. Obviously no problem there. So, I am extrapolating from my own experience (which is dangerous), but couldn't expressing and pumping in this way actually risk over-supply problems and undermine a mother's confidence in her baby to take as much as he needed? I am sure there are cases where it's necessary, but surely the most important thing is to encourage mothers to keep their newborn close and nurse first, ask questions later (ie not wait until the baby is screaming)? -- Anna H. Breastfeeding advocate and writer. http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/ *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html