Pumping Breast Milk

Pumping breast milk could help you get rid of many of your problems. If you are a working woman you could just pump your breast milk and go to office with peace. You could join an official meeting without worrying about the diet of your baby. Or you could go to a party without worrying how to feed your child.

Tips on Buying a Pump

Certain features in a pump will make milk expression more comfortable.

Convenience: Good breast pump is compact, easy to clean and lightweight. It is also easy to operate.

Double capacity: A double capacity pump will reduce your pumping time to half.

Efficiency: Any efficient pump will get you more cycles per minute.

Adjustability: The areola vacuum must be adjustable. You should choose your individual level of vacuum for every woman has a different level of comfort with these.

How to Use a Breast Pump

For using an electric pump, put a breast cup or shield over your breast, and turn the machine on. It would suck your milk into an attached container. Breast cup or shield is needed for manual pumps too. In these pumps, you extract the milk by operating a squeeze mechanism or pulling a plunger with your hand. A good electric pump will do the task in ten to fifteen minutes while a hand pump could take more than half an hour. Pump more frequently rather than for longer periods. Pumping both breasts at the same time can help.

How to Store Breast Milk

You can put breast milk in plastic or glass feeding bottles with secure caps. Plastic bags made especially for storing milk or disposable baby bottle liners could also be used.

Pumping Breast Milk at Work

Sometimes, pumping breast milk at office could also become imperative. In this case, explain to a Human Resource person why pumping breast milk for your baby is essential for you. Choose a private, clean, quiet area in the office for it. Ensure you have a place to store the milk. Discuss how you plan to fit pumping into your office time without your daily work getting hampered. You could work out a different schedule, such as coming in earlier or leaving a little later each day to make up for any lost work time, for example.

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