Breast Pumps
Also known as nipple pumps, breast pumps enable mothers to feed their baby breastmilk rather than formula when breastfeeding is inconvienient or impossible.
If mom has to spend time away from baby, maybe at work for example, then breastfeeding is impossible. Feeding baby formula is an option, however many scientists (and moms!) agree that breast milk is best for baby. Breastpumps from companies like Medela provide a solution to this problem - breast milk can be pumped (or 'expressed') and stored at home in the refigerator.
Breastpumps can also help when other problems arise. If mom has sore nipples breastpumps can be more comfortable than an eager babys mouth! Some babies dont grasp the idea of breastfeeding as readily as others, here again a breastpump can provide mothers milk for baby.
Ask any breastfeeding mother about her experiences in expressing milk using pumps, and she will have quite interesting stories to tell! The trials and travails of mothers who breastfeed whilst pursuing a career and work in offices and factories have their own share of experiences - some quite amusing, and others not so amusing.
The media and the society in general has played a vital role in developing a positive image of mothers who breastfeed at home and use a breastpump at work. The result is that mothers, especially first-time mothers, no longer fight shy of using the breastpump at their office. Indeed, they already work it out in the mind at the onset of pregnancy itself, and the community around them expects it from them, too. The strong advantages of raising children on mother's own milk, rather than industrial or formula milk, beamed over the television, through the newspapers, and in group meetings at the hospitals all go to ensure that the lactating mother abandons breast feeding in favor of formula feed only in the most rarest of rare circumstances.
Businesses, too, recognise the importance of allowing lactating mothers, returning post-partal to work, some time off and some privacy to express milk for their infants. That absenteeism is lowered, workforce morale is boosted, and sometimes loyalty to the firm, too, is enhanced, is what hard-nosed managements seem to have learnt very quickly.
The United States being the single largest healthcare market in the world, it is no surprise that big-ticket corporates from other continents have been attracted towards grabbing a share of the large pie. America welcomes them with open arms, and lets the brutal and savage forces of the market have its unbridled run. A highly competitive market for breastpumps has proved Darwin's laws of survival yet again - companies with the best products and services in this segment have surged ahead; concurrent to the logical erosion of price for the endusers. The result? More value for the buck. Lactating moms are pampered with myriad options in breastpumping - pedal pumps, hand pumps, electric pumps, battery pumps, pumps with smart cards and computer chips, pumps with LCDs that display the various parameters, pumps with this feature and pumps with that feature; and so on. A mom can buy a hundred-percent cotton blanket that stylishly sits over her shoulders and covers her body length, while the baby snuggles at her breast for its stomach fill; or perhaps she might be operating a double pump beneath it. Pillows shaped with just the right contours help her adjust the child in that "scientific" position - tongue-in-cheek - while the latter is busy nursing. One wonders how one's forefathers - or is it foremothers? - managed without them! Is the infant 3 months old? The smiling salesman swishes out a spill-proof, "magic" cup, for your bundle of joy to sip, grandly. The child has begun teething? Sure, there's a magic version with a sturdier spout, too!
A whole community of lactation consultants is engaged fulltime in their occupation of advising post-partal mothers on how to take the best care of their children. Groups such as the LLLI offer very effective fora for sharing of ideas, tips, and experiences on the entire gamut of pre-natal, pregnancy and post-partal care. People have spent their lifetime in studying the complex inter-weaving of mother's lactation processes and the child's natural rooting for the nipple as a source of food; and doctorates have been earned and patents have been filed on new techniques and methods of breastpumping.
This site aims to provide information about the more popular breastpumps in the market; along with tips and tricks for the lactating mom. We hope that your visit to this site shall be fruitful and enjoyable; and that you get the information that you were looking for.