Pump Requirement for Wet Nursing Clients?

[Vinman]

I have a choice between two local women who do Wet Nursing for clients. One has a 5 month old and will not require me to buy a pump. The other one has an 8 year old and a 2 year old and she is insisting that I get a breast pump to use during our sessions, at a cost to me of around $350. She is concerned about “backflow”, which could cause a nursing child to stop nursing.

Would love to hear some opinions on this. So far I’m leaning toward the “pump free” Mom of the 5 month old even though she’s more expensive.

Any thoughts?

[Yogi]

“Backflow” (or “backwash”) occurs during breastfeeding, including with a two-year-old, where saliva from the child’s mouth is sucked back into the nipple and mammary ducts. This phenomenon, known as retrograde duct flow, is a beneficial biological process that allows the mother’s body to detect pathogens, triggering an immune response to produce customized antibodies in the milk to help the child recover.
International Milk Genomics Consortium
International Milk Genomics Consortium
+5
Key Aspects of Backflow/Backwash:
Mechanism: When a child suckles, the vacuum created can draw saliva and microorganisms from the mouth back into the breast.
Immune Response: The mother’s breast acts as a sensor, detecting the child’s illness via saliva and increasing leukocytes (white blood cells) to combat it.
Benefits: This process helps fight infections and provides targeted protection for the child, even at the toddler stage.
Commonality: While often discussed with infants, this mechanism is a natural part of nursing and persists as long as breastfeeding continues.
International Milk Genomics Consortium
International Milk Genomics Consortium
+4
This biological interaction is often considered a way the body facilitates healing when a nursing child is sick.

The above response came from AI: I suspect the mother of the two year old wants to prevent her breast milk from including either pathogens or immune response to pass to her baby from the suckling you are doing. If that is the case, then her pumping after nursing you would be appropriate. However, most nursing mothers also have pumps they have used throughout their mothering journey, to accommodate an absence or an illness. So I would question why she doesn’t already have a pump…and why would it be necessary to purchase her one if you are paying her for the nursing, and this is an expense of doing business?

[Yogi]

Continued from above. With this mother, does she nurse anyone else for money or are you her only client? If she is doing this as a cottage industry, then you might want to make sure that she is pumping after nursing every client…both to protect you, her other clients, and her own child. If she has multiple nursing clients, then the cost of the pump would definitely not be yours to bare. Her belief that “back flow” will cause a child to stop nursing, does not seem, by my research, to be a legitimate concern.

[Author]

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