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Home › Articles › Pumps and Pumping › A Bottle Filled With Breast Milk

A Bottle Filled With Breast Milk

Why and How Women Exclusively Pump

By Krissi Danielsson

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No matter how well you plan, life sometimes throws you a curve ball. Throughout her pregnancy, Stephanie Casemore of Ontario, Canada, planned to breastfeed her son. When he was born nine weeks premature, Casemore faced challenges she never imagined. Like many preemies, her son couldn't directly breastfeed at first.

Casemore, now the author of Exclusively Pumping Breast Milk (Gray Lion Publishing, 2004), found herself stuck in an endless cycle of breastfeeding, bottle-feeding expressed milk to "top off" her son and pumping. By the time she was done with one round, it was time to start over again. "I have heard many mothers say that this cycle took over their world and wore them down to the point that a change had to be made in order to manage other aspects of life requiring their attention," she says.

Casemore's situation isn't unusual for mothers of preemies, as well as some full-term babies who have feeding difficulties at birth. While many of these mothers are able to transition to fully breastfeeding, for others like Casemore, the circumstances are so overwhelming that mothers choose to bottle-feed in order to save their sanity. Casemore didn't want to feed her son formula, so she chose to exclusively pump.

Giving breast milk in a bottle long-term is indeed possible, according to Judy Crouthamel, an international board-certified lactation consultant (IBCLC) with the Breastfeeding Alliance, Inc. Often, a mom just won't have the time to work with a baby on transitioning to the breast. "This may not be the only child a mom has," she says. "It may be easier to take 20 minutes to pump and feed the baby than spend up to an hour trying to get the baby to latch and then have to pump anyway."

Challenges of Exclusive Pumping
For women with a strong belief in the importance of breast milk, exclusive pumping can be preferable to using formula. Yet, by no means is it an ideal feeding arrangement. Casemore believes it's important that women not have illusions of pumping being easy. "The fact that it is time consuming and exhausting – especially early on – cannot be overlooked," she says. "This can lead a woman to not pumping enough or to dropping pumping sessions too early, which in turn can lead to a drop in supply."

In addition, depending on where you give birth, you may encounter a lack of support for exclusive pumping. The staff may not have heard of it being done successfully and may not view it as a realistic option. "Some doctors will suggest a switch to formula without mentioning the option of pumping," Casemore says. "They may even suggest that pumping is not a realistic option if a mother broaches the subject."

Making It Work
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