Single-use, high quality electric pumps have been available for consumer purchase since the early 90’s.  During these intervening years, the amount of pumping has increased exponentially in the United States and across the industrialized world.  Pumping is very much part of the popular culture, often being featured in sitcoms and instructional media geared to expectant parents.  There is a not too subtle imperative to own a deluxe pump before the baby is even born.  Doctors, Nurses and Lactation Consultants encourage pumping as a way to both evaluate and to increase a mother’s milk supply. 

Pumping for some women is their idea of Breastfeeding.  Are you all Pumped Up?

Symptoms include, but are not limited to the following: 

• You Breastfeed and pump after almost all feedings
• You wake up in the middle of the night to pump
• Your are pumping weeks worth of extra milk, just in case
• You “power pump” if you get less milk out than usual in order to increase your supply
• You pump whenever you feel something is wrong with your breasts
• You pump to “empty” your breasts

I field inquiries in all my venues about pump management.  Mothers have been sold on the idea that the pump tells the whole story about their Breastfeeding.  They worry when they can’t extract the same amounts as their friends or in volumes that compete with ready-made formula bottles. 

Those women who do obtain copious amounts of milk when they pump will often have issues in their breasts while breastfeeding.  They tend to be out of sync with the baby and often contend with excessive leaking and engorgement.  Some will report having had Mastitis which was the result of inadequate drainage from only pumping or mixing pumping with direct, but inconsistent patterns of Breastfeeding.

Pumping can actually compound any problem brewing in the breasts.  Women who have sore nipples and engorgement are often advised to pump, rather than to correct the latch.  Congestion can build up and if not relieved the mother will spike a temperature leading to a course of antibiotic therapy.  Whenever, the health of the breast has been compromised it is essential to use the baby and not the pump to solve the problem.

Of course there is a time and place for Pumping…

• Premature Delivery
• Illness of mother or issues with the baby or babies that require a delay or interruption of direct breastfeeding
• To obtain human milk if supplements are medically indicated
• Returning to Work outside the home

Other reasons cited, may include:

•  Mom needs a break from breastfeeding
• Dad/partner wants to participate in feedings
• To know how much the baby is getting at feedings

Since the mother is the only one pumping and Breastfeeding, it is not exactly a vacation.  Pumping will increase her workload and can create additional anxiety as her milk output can vary greatly depending upon when she pumps.  The mother who feels overwhelmed and worried about her milk supply may begin supplementing and make decisions that lead to early weaning. 

If you are pumping or have pumped what has been your experience?  Are you all pumped up?…or more aptly all pumped out?  I invite your comments and concerns related to pumping.

Murphy’s Law : If Something Can Go Wrong. It Will.

Turns out that I am an actual descendant of said Murphy.  Kathleen Clements nee Murphy was my maternal grandmother.  It is true that she had her share of hard knocks being widowed in her mid-thirties.  She had nine children ranging in age from 12 down to 9 months at the time of my grandfather’s fatal car crash on the winding roads of the Wicklow mountains.  Nonetheless, she lived a full life and saw all of her children grow-up to adulthood.  I would like to think that my optimistic spirit is part of her legacy.

Throughout the past 30 years actively working as a Maternal-Child Health Nurse and Lactation Consultant, this feeling of optimism has at times been difficult to maintain.  Being a passionate advocate of breastfeeding has been frustrating.  Often I feel like a salmon swimming upstream against the current of bad advice and token support.

Breastfeeding in the modern era has always had its challenges.  Much like childbirth, yet another natural process of the female body has fallen victim to a medical model which at its core assumes intervention will be needed.  Mothers are confronted with an over-reliance on gadgets, weights and measures and liberal supplementation with formula served up as breastfeeding support.

Anyone who knows me, reads this blog or my articles is very aware of my dismay at this medicalization of breastfeeding.  I am constantly reminded about this sad state of affairs when I teach my prenatal classes and survey the expectant mothers.  It is shocking that the majority know someone, with less than six degrees of separation, who has had a difficult breastfeeding experience.  As a result, these mothers-to-be are tentative and will say “I will try” or “If it works” when they discuss their own breastfeeding goals.  In essence, they are starting with an expectation of failure…Murphy’s Law.

Conscious Breastfeeding is your tool to outwit dear old Murphy.  Your breastfeeding is not a science project nor is it an illness.  It is a natural extension of your pregnancy meant to sustain your baby through its continued growth and development outside of your body.  

You need to be Conscious…put your focus on optimizing your breastfeeding connection.  Get help with the latch. It is skill and a teachable moment for you and your baby.  Don’t be fooled into thinking that your baby can do it without your help.  A baby and a pump are not the same.  When in doubt your baby always trumps the pump when you have a great latch.

By focusing on the fundamentals and keeping things as simple as possible you can replace a fear of failure with a sense of accomplishment.  Replace Murphy’s Law with the positive Universal Laws which see you in all of your glory as… a Conscious Breastfeeding mom.

In the Celtic calendar, 5.01, May Day, marks the mid way point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.  According to Selena Fox  in her 1997 workshop ”…it is a time of divination and communion with Fairy Folk/Nature Spirits.”

May Day started for me with a tearful message left on my answering service.  This “Mayday call” signaled the distress of yet another new mother and the imminent end of her breastfeeding journey.  In spite of having hired several lactation experts, she had never had a successful latch until she had worked with me on the previous day.  Her confidence had been shaken by weeks of frustration and lack of progress.  She had been pumping and using gadgets (nipple shield, SNS) since her daughter’s birth and was discouraged from thinking she would ever be a successful breastfeeding mother.  She now knew it was possible.  However, she was truly at her wits end because she could not replicate the latch on her own. 

This mom, baby and her husband had embraced the principles of Conscious Breastfeeding but the habits of several weeks were hard to change overnight.  A lot of tears were shed.  Patience and consistency were required to teach her daughter the skill of breastfeeding.  Invoking my inner Irish and the energy of the day, we worked together as a team to rebuild this mom’s confidence and establish new Conscious Breastfeeding Connections.

May Day ended with a very different call from this now joyful breastfeeding mom.   With a nod to the Fairy Folk, the magical alchemy of nature, nurture and our combined intention had brought success.