How Do I Choose a Breast Pump? When deciding what kind of pump - TopicsExpress



          

How Do I Choose a Breast Pump? When deciding what kind of pump to use or if one is even necessary, it is helpful to consider what your needs will be for expressed milk. Some women find that they never need to use a pump after seeing how easy it is to take a breastfed baby along. Others who will be away from the baby for specific times will need some way to express milk. If you find you do need a pump, there are many different kinds of pumps available. Selecting the best pump can be likened to choosing a handbag and what works for one woman is not necessarily the best option for another. Some considerations when thinking about pumps are cost, portability, noise level, ease of use and efficiency. There are manual (hand operated) pumps which often are helpful for those who want to pump on an occasional basis to leave milk for baby. Most are easy to operate, are small, and easy to transport. Some require two hands and others operate with only one hand. There are also small electric pumps available from different manufacturers. These use batteries or AC adapters to supply the power and are still quite small and portable. Some are quiet and some are not. When pumping time is limited and larger milk volumes are needed, some women rely on full-size, automatic electric pumps, which have a suck-release cycle that is closer to the pattern of a baby than the continuous suction of the smaller pumps. Many women report they are quite efficient and quiet, although not quite as portable. The newer automatic electric pumps designed for mothers who need to regularly pump their milk represent another option. These are quiet to operate and are listed as single-user pumps by the manufacturers. However, if a mother needs to pump to increase her milk supply, provide milk for a premature baby or other situations where the baby is not breastfeeding to provide stimulation for the mother’s breasts, the hospital-grade rental pumps are the preferred option. It can be helpful to ask friends whether or not they needed a pump and if they did what kind they used. Inquire what features were found helpful and what could have been better. Please note that most breast pumps are considered single-user products, and because of the risk of contamination (there is a chance that milk can be aspirated into the pump mechanism, which cannot be sterilized), should not be borrowed or shared. Manual pumps that can be autoclaved are an exception.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 12:57:32 +0000

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