To read the previous section, follow the link : Manual or electric breast pump?
You breastfeed your baby full‑time and plan on giving 3 bottles or less a week? Besides, your baby has a good suck and your milk supply is very satisfactory? In that case, a good manual breast pump might just be the answer.
Choose the right moment to express your milk. In fact, sometimes while a baby is feeding at the first breast, the other may drip in the bra compress. Why not collect milk while you’re nursing? You can use a one‑handed manual breast pump, a small container, and a shield or buy a product for the purpose in a specialty shop.
A mother may express her milk because the baby is sleeping longer at night. You wake up and he’s sleeping! And you’re engorged when he wakes up 6 or 7 hours later. To ease engorgement, why not express milk before you breastfeed? Your baby will get all he needs.
If the baby nurses well at one breast but takes little or nothing from the other side, why not express a little milk from the second breast? That way, you can easily stock up.
If the baby drinks regularly at the breast and is satisfied with your milk supply but you have no milk left to express, you need to increase breast stimulation so that your milk supply will exceed the baby’s needs. As you know, breast milk is produced on demand and the greater the demand, the more milk you produce. To keep pace, you can express your milk 3 times a day, 1 1/2 hours after the feeding. At first, there’ll hardly be any milk flow because the brain needs repeated messages to build the supply significantly. You’ll see, as you do it, that in a few days, the scant drops will grow into many ounces of milk and you’ll have the reserves you were hoping for. With this breast pump, the baby is responsible for maintaining the milk supply and he must be breastfed full‑time.
Advantages of a manual breast pump:
The mother controls the suction level and so she should proceed according to her own rhythm and comfort. A manual pump is also compact and great for travel, easy to clean and handy for quickly expressing a few ounces, an excellent tool on the go.
The price:
You can expect to pay between $70 and $90 for a quality breast pump.
Maintenance:
No matter what breast pump you choose, always sanitize the pump parts before using them for the first time.
Since the breast pump is in contact only with the breast milk, we can count on the antibodies (white blood cells) in the milk to prevent bacterial contamination to a certain degree. But good daily hygiene is essential. That’s why, after each use, you should:
- Rinse all the removable parts of the breast pump in cold water to eliminate breast milk residue;
- Then wash the removable parts in soap and water;
- Rinse the parts in very hot water from the tap;
- Cover them and let them dry on the counter.
Manufacturers often suggest we disinfect the breast pump once a day or several times a week. Slip the pump into a micro‑steam bag and pop it into the microwave or disinfect the pump in a sterilizer. A dishwasher is not an ideal option because it may eventually damage the rubber. For optimal pump use, follow the manufacturer’s instructional manual.
To access the next section, click on the following link : Electric breast pump
