In honor of 2008’s World Breastfeeding Week, we have interviewed a variety of moms that have gone the extra mile of pumping for their children. This is Stephanie A.’s story.

Stephanie had to pump when her daughter was in the NICU both to provide her daughter with her milk and to relieve the discomfort of having too much milk. She used an Avent ISIS manual pump. She and her daughter both hated the early experience of supplementing and bottles, and moved on to establish a successful and comfortable breastfeeding relationship.

If you were to have a conversation with a mom today that was about to pump what advice would you have for her?

Every person is different and may need a different pump that will be more efficient. Some women are not successful with pumping at all. If you are pumping to relieve the discomfort of having too much milk, that is going to keep your supply up, so if you want to produce less milk, you should try not to pump, or pump as infrequently as possible.

What issues did you run into with pumping? How did you overcome them?

Not really “issues” but pumps where definitely more time consuming than just breastfeeding. I wouldn’t say I overcame that, but my husband helped me a lot. When I was able to pump less frequently and breastfeed more often that was helpful!

How would you describe your support system, and how did they help or discourage you from achieving your goal?

My husband is VERY happy that I am breastfeeding, although he gets jealous of the time I have with our daughter. My mother is also very supportive.

What was your original intention for feeding your child?

I absolutely, 100%, did NOT want my baby to have ANY formula. I still plan on breastfeeding for a minimum of 2 years.

How did pumping influence your goals?

It helped build my milk supply while my daughter was in the NICU, and I was proud to be giving her MY milk instead of formula or donor milk.

What was the most difficult thing about pumping?

Waking up in the middle of the night because my breasts where so full.

If you were to change one thing about breast pumps, what would you change?

Well, my pump would keep “coming apart” in a sense, I guess i would be pumping too hard and I would have to keep putting a part back in place. That would get annoying.

How did you store your milk?

I would take advantage of the “10 hours” rule that says that breastmilk can stand at room temperature for up to 10 hours. I would pump at night, and then have to pump again in another 5 hours or so. Then I would bag the milk and freeze it in our freezer at home. It saved me a trip to the freezer in the middle of the night and meant I could get back to sleep more quickly.

Did you ever end up having to pump and dump?

Yes, but only because I forgot about the milk and it stayed out too long!

What was your pumping routine? Did you have any tricks to help the milk come down?

I would take slow, deep breaths and try to relax and then it would come down.

Did you ever battle with low supply? How did you overcome it?

In the beginning I did, like many women do, but I just kept breastfeeding and then I ended up with too much milk!

Did you ever supplement? How would you describe the experience?

YES! I supplemented and I hated it! and so did our daughter, she hated formula and she also hated bottles. But that stopped pretty quickly. Both of us were relieved to be back to 100% breastfeeding.