When you learn to breastfeed, you are told to massage your breasts to help with the let down of your breast milk.  Well, of course the same holds true for breast pumping.  However, in addition to massaging just prior to using your breast pumping, you will want to massage your breasts while breast pumping.

As you are breast pumping, use your thumb to put pressure on your breasts from your armpit and run it along to the breast shield.  This put pressure on the milk ducts pushing more breast milk out as you are breast pumping.

You can even hold the breast shields on with your index and middle finger (or use a hands-free bra) and actually squeeze your breast with your thumb and pinky, pushing forward from your armpit for the entire time you are breast pumping.  This helps to really get all the breast milk out more quickly and efficiently.

Hey, this may feel a little awkward, but if it helps you to fill up that freezer with breast milk for your baby, you’ll get used to it very quickly.

Have you noticed that you create more breast milk or breast pump quicker when you massage your breasts?  Let us know how much breast milk you have been able to produce.

Having a quality breast pump is essential if you plan to breast pump exclusively or even occasionally when returning to work.  If you do not have a quality breast pump intended for full time use, then your efforts at breast pumping will be useless.  After some time of using a lower quality breast pump (battery operated, single, even low voltage) you will find that your breast milk will begin to decrease.

That is why it is necessary to invest (yes, invest – because they are in the range of $200-300) in a good breast pump that will keep your breast milk flowing to continue to provide for your baby over the next weeks or months.

There are a few very good pumps (personal use) that are favorites with moms that breast pump on a regular basis:

-          Medela’s Pump in Style Advanced

-          Advent’s Isis IQ Duo

-          Ameda’s Purely Yours Ultra

In addition to these, there are hospital-grade pumps that can be rented and are perfect to help when moms needs that extra hard-working breast pump.  Since these pumps run so high ($800-1200), they can be rented to help alleviate some of the costs:

-          Medela’s Symphony

-          Medela’s Lactina

-          Ameda’s Elite

What breast pump did you use when breast pumping?  Let us know how you liked it.

Exclusive breast pumping is becoming more and more popular as moms become busier and busier.  But as each year passes, providing breast milk to our babies while still keeping the hectic schedule that we call our lives, it becoming must easier and more efficient.

The 10 tips should help you make your breast pumping more successful, whether you are pumping occasionally or exclusively.

1. Use a quality breast pump that is meant for exclusive breast pumping
2. Massage or squeeze your breasts from your armpits forward the entire time you are breast pumping
3. Breast pump for 2-3 minutes after the last of your breast milk has stopped
4. Make sure to relax or have something to do to preoccupy you while you are pumping (this helps the time go by much more quickly)
5. Do not give up the night time breast pumping session, even when baby is sleeping through the night
6. Don’t force the breast pump to pump too quickly or keep the pressure too high
7. Create a routine/schedule and try not to deviate from it
8. Remember that this will not be for the rest of your life (perhaps less than a year or even just a few months)
9. Have a routine for how to handle your breast milk after you are finished pumping, so as not to lose any from spoilage
10. Make sure to drink plenty of water during the day

What have been some of your favorite tricks to help you breast pump longer for your baby?  Let us know.

This is the busiest travel time of the year and you are pumping.  Well, congratulations, this is usually when most moms stop pumping because of the hassle of traveling and pumping.  But, remember, if you plan your pumping ahead of time, you will be more successful and be able to continue to give your baby that precious breast milk.

If you are staying in a relative or friend’s home, make sure to find and set-up a pumping spot as soon as you get there.  If you have your own room, this will be pretty easy to create a nice, comfy spot.  I admit that I normally found a spot in a bathroom, because I didn’t want to wake Gabrielle up in the middle of the night.

I remember when I stayed at a camp site with my in-laws when I was pumping.  I brought a comfy blanket, set-it out in a corner by the bath, and had my pump ready with batteries (since the plug was too far away) and a magazine to keep me awake at 2:00 in the morning.  And then I just covered everything up with the blanket when I was done, or bundle everything up into the blanket and move to an out-of-the-place.  My family was very supportive and just worked around my breast pump set-up.

It can be difficult sometimes, especially, when routines change (such as traveling during the holidays), but the most important thing to remember is that it is only for a short time in your life to give your baby the best milk that you can.

What kind of tips do you have when traveling while breast pumping or breastfeeding?  Let us know. Happy Traveling.

Engorgement can be a very painful thing to go through.  As you are going through the process of drying up your breast milk, you feel like the pain of the engorgement will never go away.  I was lucky enough to breast pump for my baby girl for over a year; however, before that I attempted to breastfeed my son for well over a couple of week with no luck.

Because of the severe pain of the engorged breasts that I experienced as I tried to stop breastfeeding, a lactation consultant suggested that I rent a hospital-grade breast pump to both alleviate the pain and get some breast milk for the baby.  My first exposure to this rental breast pump was very good.   It helped tremendously with the pain of my engorged breast, yet being well over a decade ago, how to breast pump exclusively was still almost a mystery.  Therefore, I really only used the breast pump to keep the engorgement pain to a minimum.

Today, we are much luckier with the excessive amount of information, supplies AND variety of breast pumps that though we may have trouble bringing baby to breast this does not mean that we cannot provide our babies with our breast milk.

Every mom, whether they are breast pumping or bringing baby to breast should come home from the hospital with at a manual pump.  Every mom will go through engorged breasts when your breast milk finally comes in and you and baby get on a good schedule.  Having the breast pump around to help during those times of engorgement will help. Even if you are bringing baby to breast, manual pumping a little extra milk in the first days will help to keep the pain down.