As you gain in experience you may want to resume activities that were temporarily interrupted by early motherhood. You may need to return to work or want some help to feed your child occasionally. In such cases, a breast pump becomes handy to express breast milk that your baby`s caregiver can feed to him in a bottle or cup in your absence. This is a better option than offering your baby formula, since infant formula lacks in the nutrients and the immunological functions, and may also enhance your baby`s susceptibility to allergic reactions.
Expressing Milk
Milk can be expressed by hand, with a manual pump, or with a battery-operated or electric breast pump. Hand-expression is the most convenient choice initially, but can be challenging to learn for some women. It is the most cost effective as there is no need for equipment. You can initiate this first during a regular breastfeeding, af-ter you have already experienced a let-down reflex. You can ex-press milk from the second breast immediately after a feeding with the first, or even during that first feeding with the help of your partner or someone else. It is easiest to express milk in the morning after you wake up, since milk is more abundant then.
To express by hand, first clean your hands and finger-nails by washing them with soap and water. You might even take a warm shower to refresh yourself, or place a clean, warm, moist towel over your breasts to help you relax and en-courage the milk to let down. Keep massaging your breast slowly and gently, starting at the outer areas and working your way down toward the nipple. Your skin should not feel uncomfortable with the massage.
Then, place a clean cup or jar beneath the nipple so that the milk will drip directly into it without being contaminated by your hand or your breast. Position your hand on the areola with the thumb above and two fingers below, about an inch behind the nipple. Press back toward your chest, and then gently press the areola between your thumb and fingers and release with a rhythmic motion until the milk flows or squirts out. Rotate your thumb and fingers around the areola to get milk from several positions. Do not to squeeze the nipple or slide down the breast, since this can cause bruising.
Transfer the milk into clean, covered containers for storage in the refrigerator or freezer. If you do not succeed in the first attempt try again later-but be aware that your let-down reflex may take a while to occur, and it may then take up to half an hour at first to sufficiently relieve both breasts. You probably will be to shorten the expression time considerably after you gain practice. The amount of milk you can collect will increase from perhaps an ounce per session to a full bottle or more.
Breast Pumps
A breast pump will help you to express milk more effectively. One of the commonly used manual pumps or hand pumps is the cylinder type, which consists of two cylinders, one inside the other. To express milk, you shift the outer cylinder back and forth, initiating a suction action. The milk collects in the inner cylinder which consists of a plastic jar attached to the pump that can be used as a bottle.
Small battery-operated or electric pumps are also available for women who may express breast milk only on a random basis. Full-time working mothers and those with premature, ill, or physi-cally impaired babies who will be using a pump on a routine basis should use hospital-grade electric breast pumps.
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