There are several reasons why breastfeeding mothers need to express their milk:
1. They are working moms who are away from their babies during the day
2. The babies sleep soundly through the night (like mine) so the breasts get full in the night
3. The babies can’t latch on properly (tongue-tied, inverted nipples etc) so they get breastmilk in the bottle
4. To increase or maintain breastmilk production rate – ideally we should empty both breasts after each feeding
5. To relieve breast engorgement
We can express breastmilk by hand (the marmet method), using manual or battery/electricity operated breastpump. I never got the gist of hand-expressing, so I chose to use a breastpump instead. During the first few months when the production rate was still low I used a manual breastpump, then during the peak period of breastmilk production I used an electric breastpump which gave more milk at a faster time. Working moms often chose double pump that can express both breasts at one go, very useful if you have limited time to express at the office. There are also pumps with massage feature to induce the let-down reflex. Nowadays there are myriad of options regarding breastpump types and brands, you’ll need to do a thorough research before deciding to purchase one. Or you can just receive one as a gift and stick with it, like I did. Read the rest of this entry
The Clueless Mommy 