"I was wondering if holding the baby skin to skin on mom's chest while pumping would help by raising hormone levels. My idea is to put dad to work here. Has anyone tried this?" Yes, skin to skin while pumping would probably help w/milk production. So would getting the baby directly on to mom's breast - even if she needs the shield for the "business" part of feedings, my understanding is that the mouth-to-skin contact is important to milk production. That the loss of that direct stimulation is one reason why shields, even very thin silicone ones, *may* cut down on milk production. And besides, skin-to-skin with a baby is just about the most delicious sensation there is; it sounds like the mother of this little one probably has been through some very worrisome and difficult times, and for sure the baby has, so they would probably both benefit from the healing that snuggling up together could bring. I'm not too sure what you mean by putting dad to "work" in this situation! Do you mean having dad bring baby to mom & helping to hold baby skin-to-skin while mom's pumping? (I thought not!) Do you mean enlisting the dad to provide mouth-to-skin stimulation to the breast? I know people who've tried it & said it didn't work (at least in terms of milk production); they said that the sensation is too different, and that (if you're talking about active sucking, rather than just some gentle mouthing action) grown-ups have "forgotten" how to do it right. Cathy Bargar RN IBCLC Ithaca NY *********************************************** 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