Is it good to use an electric breast pump?
Should we use an electric breast pump?
If you want to continue breastfeeding when you return to work, and you are not lucky enough to be able to go to your child's daycare during the day to breastfeed, you will need to express your milk so that your baby can continue to benefit from it. This requires patience, but with a little organization, and an electric breast pump, you will see that there are many other advantages to building up reserves of your breast milk.
For speed.
An important difference between a manual breast pump and an electric breast pump is the amount of time you will spend expressing milk. Especially if your needs are daily, electric models represent a valuable time saving. Some are equipped with a double pump, to optimize the times when you can express your milk without your baby. With pots or bags, designed for storage, and which attach directly to the breast pump, you only have to store them in the freezer or refrigerator.
For comfort.
For a long time, mothers preferred manual breast pumps because they were less painful.
But recent electric or electronic models, equipped with silicone cushions, are much more comfortable than before. Some are even designed with a massage function that stimulates the areola, and imitates baby's sucking. Thus their use is simpler, more pleasant and still just as fast.
When to express milk?
First of all, know that it is not recommended to express your milk before 6 weeks (except in cases of earlier use where the breast pump will be there to stimulate milk production, for a premature baby for example). Lactation takes a long time to establish itself, and it is only after these 6 weeks that your production will be adapted to your baby's rhythm. Otherwise, it is better to express your milk in the morning because this is the time of day when you have the most and if you have returned to work, at midday to maintain your lactation. In all cases, express your milk when you are calm and relaxed, your lactation will only be better.
For occasional separations.
Breastfeeding requires a lot of energy. Your baby's regular demands leave you with little time to rest. Having bottles in advance or stocks in the freezer allows you to take some time for yourself; for a lie-in, or even an outing with friends. This also gives dad the opportunity to have moments of complicity with his little angel, by giving him your milk in a bottle.
In public places.
You don't always have the privacy you need to breastfeed. Many mothers, when they are not in their family cocoon, do not want to breastfeed in public.
If you have stored breast milk, you can continue to breastfeed your baby anywhere, under any circumstances.
In case of difficulties.
When your baby skips a feed or because he sleeps a lot, some mothers may be faced with engorgement problems. The breast pump is then the ideal equipment to relieve you. Expressing your milk not only relieves you but also allows you to alternate - if you wish - breasts and bottles if you suffer from cracked nipples, due to the sustained rhythm of feedings. You can maintain a supply of breast milk for your child, while calming your pain.
