I am very thankful for this little kit. This is what allowed me to breastfeed my daughter. I had a c-section, and my milk didn't come in until my baby was 6 days old. The nursing staff kept pressuring me (very heavily) to give her a bottle of formula. I refused the bottle because I felt that it would compromise, if not completely ruin, my ability to breastfeed. This little kit was the answer. It created a win-win situation for everyone. My baby was able to receive the nourishment she needed until my milk came in; by having her latch and nurse naturally at the breast, my body was receiving the signals it needed for milk production; and the staff was satisfied with the compromise. There was no need for me to give her a bottle, and then pump every 3 hours to stimulate production. (What a nuisance that would be for a recovering mother!) My baby, while nursing with the SNS starter kit, was able to stimulate my milk production naturally. There was never a worry about nipple confusion either, since she didn't have a bottle. It was the perfect solution. By the time my milk came in, she was nursing very well and we were set up for success. I must add that I had to ASK for this kit at the hospital. I was seeing the lactation consultant and she never offered it. Finally, I asked for the kit and then she brought it to me. (I had seen this kit years before, so I knew something like this existed.) Once we tried it, everything came together! I only gave it 4 stars simply because it is sort of cumbersome to handle. My husband had to help me because it was hard to hold the baby, my breast, and the tubing/kit at the same time. However, I didn't mind the difficulty after the wonderful outcome. I am now ordering a few kits to send to my sister in North Dakota, since they do not have them there. (Her hospital doesn't carry them and her lactation consultant didn't have any.) I wish that these were more widely available and offered more often to mothers that are really trying to give breastfeeding their very best effort. In my opinion, this kit was the difference between failure and success! Also, I did not discard my kit after 24 hours. I used 2 kits within that week. I just washed and used it for 2-3 days, and it worked fine.

Hello, I am a hospital based Lactation Consultant. I would like to get more information about why the starter sns needs to be discarded after only 24 hours. I would like to use these for inpatient breastfeeding mothers who need to supplement, but it is hard to justify finances if it is only good for 24 hours. I would suggest a starter product like this should be manufactured to be able to be used for at least 7 days, at the very minimum, at least 4-5 days since C-section mothers stay in hospital for that length. If I started a C-section mother on this system, I would need to use 3-4 of these kits just for the time she is in the hospital. For a vaginal mother, it could be 2 kits. I think mothers need some time to see if this supplementing at the breast system works for them before they commit to making the purchase of the SNS itself. I know I've read about this issue on Lactnet as well. I have called Medela in the past and I was given the 24 hour time frame due to the 'type of plastic' it is made from. I would really appreciate more info.