Breast Pumps Don’t Compare To Mother’s Own Hand
July 26, 2011 No Comments
New research proves the breastfeeding power of the hand over a breast pump.
When a newborn is having difficulty properly feeding from his or her mommy there are two options for the new little family: produce the milk by hand or use a pump to get the milk from the nipple. Both ways work, but the more natural hand expression has been proven to create a longer lasting breastfeeding experience.
A study of 68 mothers with infants only 12 to 36 hours old randomly assigned hand expression or pump expression to new mothers for slots of 15 minutes. Surprisingly, when inquiring two months later, 97.1 percent of the hand expression mothers were still breastfeeding compared to only 72.7 percent of the pump expression mommies. But why?
There is no conclusive evidence, but there are plenty of guesses as to why personal, hand pumping is preferred and promotes longer breastfeeding. For one, the sheer volume of milk collected could keep pump mommies unsatisfied. When using a breast pump, the large collection cup makes the usually tiny millilitre of milk appear wimpy and inadequate. When hand pumping, the millilitre will look much more successful.
Also, the whole technological, space-age looking breast pump could be much more embarrassing to new mothers than getting the milk out by herself. Sitting with weird cups attached to your bosom making a pumping noise isn’t exactly the most confidence-provoking activity. It simply is not a natural way to complete a task that is so undeniably natural.
Whatever the reason, it seems that good old-fashioned hand expression is the surefire way to maintain that breastfeeding connection with a newborn.
Contact the author here: crazycolleen@morningquickie.com
