Hand expression

[Guest guest]

I've really been enjoying the threads on home visits and office visits

as well as different approaches to follow up phone calls. I've been

curious for a long time about hand expression. Do any of you feel

confident about teaching moms hand expression and do you teach it on a

regular basis? I've been a LLL Leader for five years and a lurker on

Lactnet for almost two years and it seems most folks in North America

seem uncomfortable with hand expression - which could be an enormously

empowered skill for moms to learn. I never got the hang of doing it

myself.

McCormick

Vermont, USA

(studying for the exam and learning so much here!)

[Guest guest]

I find that every mother needs to know how to manually express, but I

do see mothers from prenatal, birth at the hospital, outpatient back at

the hospital or private patient from other hospitals. I use the

following clip from Stanford if someone has contacted me at 5pm

complaining of engorgement, this helps her so much until we can get

together.

http://newborns.stanford.edu/Breastfeeding/HandExpression.html

I also deal with mothers from NICU, and encourage mothers to do hand

expression in addition to using the pump. It is also something I

encourage for the newborn having difficulty latching on to " prime the

pump " and get not only get a taste, but also the breast responding to

suckling quicker and/or to be able to spoon feed the infant with the

colostrum if unable/unwilling to latch at that feeding. I really like

to get dad involved with the spoon feeding while mom is expressing,

alternating spoons between them. That way they both feel that they are

doing something in a difficult situation... The two biggest things

that I see they do wrong and need assistance: how close their hands

are to the nipple (band-aides are a good idea, but never in my pocket)

and pushing back - not pulling forward.

Dalton RNC, IBCLC, RLC

In both PP and Hospital practice... part time in each equals more than

full time!

>

> I've really been enjoying the threads on home visits and office visits

> as well as different approaches to follow up phone calls. I've been

> curious for a long time about hand expression. Do any of you feel

> confident about teaching moms hand expression and do you teach it on a

> regular basis? I've been a LLL Leader for five years and a lurker on

> Lactnet for almost two years and it seems most folks in North America

> seem uncomfortable with hand expression - which could be an enormously

> empowered skill for moms to learn. I never got the hang of doing it

> myself.

>

> McCormick

> Vermont, USA

> (studying for the exam and learning so much here!)

>