BREAST PUMP OF THE MONTH -NOVEMBER – Lansinoh 2-IN-1 Affinity Pro Electric Breast Pump

The Lansinoh lightweight 2-in-1 Electric Breast Pump can be used as a single or double pump.

You can either plug the pump into the mains when you’re at home, or use with batteries when you want to express away from home.
It also features a ‘closed’ pump system which means that your precious milk does not enter the tubing, ensuring you have optimum suction, making your expression even more effective than before.
The 2 in 1 Electric pump has 2 separate phases which simulates your baby’s natural sucking pattern……

o ‘Let Down’ Phase which gives a rapid suction to initiate milk flow and the ‘Expression’ Phase which offers slower and deeper suction to maximise your milk flow.

o The Expression Phase includes 3 of the most effective pumping styles to choose from, which you can tailor to your comfort.

o You will be able to see which pumping style you are using with the helpful LED light up display on the control unit.

The 2 in 1 Electric Pump is also quiet and easy to assemble and clean, making it a great addition to your breastfeeding equipment.
Pump is guaranteed for 12 months against latent defects and we offer a full Service back-up to assist you through any problems you may experience with your pump.

BPA Free

Hospital Performance Grade

Pump retails for R2700.00

Reaching A Goal

For some moms reaching a pumping goal is filled with excitement, an internal pat on the back and the self-approval that it’s now okay to stop working so hard to feed their baby, to pack up the pump and move on with their lives.

For me though, I don’t feel that excitement, my upcoming goal is filled with anxiety, self doubt and fear, a fear of so many things, post-weaning depression being a big one!

For 4 years I will have diligently set up my pump and pumped out the milk my daughter loves, the milk that has sustained her, made her feel safe and sleepy, kept her healthy, the milk we have bonded over, the milk I’ve stressed over, the milk that has come to define my passion, my life-goal, the milk that has come to define me.

It’s hard to let go of something that has played such a big part in your life, there are so many significant things that have gone into and come out of this journey, so much of my mothering, so much of my self esteem, my self acceptance and self worth, what will I be when I eventually stop pumping?

So many things that go through my mind as we reach 4 years of exclusive pumping, are we ready yet? Does my daughter still need my milk? How will my body react? How will my brain react?

I know my family wants me to stop, I know they have wanted me to stop for a very long time, occasionally I want to stop too, but we are not the only people in this breastfeeding relationship, we aren’t the only ones who deserve a say on when the milk stops. My daughter still loves her milk at bedtime, she still asks for it when she wakes up in the middle of the night after a bad dream, she still asks for it when she is upset and is cuddled up in my lap or when she has taken a tumble and skinned her knee, when she doesn’t eat well it’s our peace of mind, when she is sick it’s our saving grace, when she is over tired it’s our “calm down” routine that helps little bodies to relax and fall asleep, there is still SO much we all benefit from this journey. Who’s to say when it’s over other than the 2 people who are directly involved?

I know that in little less than 2 months time my family and society will be expecting me to stop pumping, but there’s still so much under the surface that they don’t understand, so much they couldn’t fathom would be rolled up in this alternative breastfeeding journey, still so much pain, doubt, fear, failure, and on the flip side there’s all that passion, determination, pride, there’s the bond between me and my daughter, the security of getting at least something healthy into her, the fact that giving her my milk eases so many of my mothering fears, the feeling that on those days when I mess everything up at the end of the day I can still do something right, something that eases those feelings of failure and helplessness. For some, letting that all go might be easy. I am not one of them.

I don’t know when we will be ready to stop, but I am confident that when that time comes I will not be filled with fear, I will not have that nagging feeling that I will regret quitting, I will not be sad, so for now we carry on, day by day, until one day, my daughter says “no thanks, I don’t need my bedtime milk” and I breathe a sigh of contentment and I pack my pumps away with excitement for the next part of our wonderful journey.

Breast Storage Capacity

Typically when moms think storage capacity, they think breast size, the bigger your breasts the more milk, right?

Wrong!

Breast size does not necessarily dictate how much milk your body will produce and hold.

Breast capacity is how much milk your ducts and the space behind the nipple can hold between feeds.
Think of it like this, both you and a friend have cup, yours is slightly wider so holds a little more, you both place your cups under a magic tap that is dripping at the same rate and automatically switches off when your cup becomes full. Your friend needs to empty her cup more often in order to collect the most water while you can go a little while longer until you need to empty yours.

This is why some babys feed more often than others, it is not necessarily that your milk supply is low or inadequate, its more likely that you have a slightly smaller storage capacity and so your breast needs to be emptied more regularly for your body to produce more.

With exclusive pumping it is so important to not only stick to a schedule, but to read your body. Are you a mom that can happily go 4 hours between sessions, or do you need to pump more often in order to get the highest yield possible?

When milk is left in the breast too long, your body releases a protein called FIL (Feedback Inhibitor to Lactation), this protein builds up over time and stops the extra production of milk, so skipping that one pumping session a few days in a row or dropping sessions too early can damage your supply, likewise, when you top-up while breastfeeding, with every missed feed the FIL protein is building up and signaling your body to produce less milk, unless of course you are pumping during the top-up feed.

It is so important to remember that breastmilk production is based on demand and supply, the more milk you remove from the breast (especially during those all important first few weeks), the more milk your breasts will produce.

If you feel that you have a serious supply issue, speak to a board certified lactation consultant (remember to check credentials, you only want an IBCLC or SACLC) or one of the wonderful volunteer La Leche League Leaders in your area.

The Smell of ICU and Disinfectants – Petro’s Story

You can follow Petro’s blog at Journeys of the heart – Fertility treatments, pregnancy, and things beyond our control, here

The smell of ICU and disinfectants

I don’t know why I shopped for a breast pump when I was still pregnant. I didn’t decide right from the start that I was going to pump. I just had this feeling that twins = breastpump. I had this vague idea that breastfeeding is somewhat better than giving formula and I knew for sure I didn’t want to spend money on formula if I could give my babies all-free meals. I didn’t know about La Leche League. I read on American baby forums about “lactation consultants” and thought, I wish we had something like that. I’ve wrestled through a babybook or two and it didn’t give any information on breastfeeding.It so happened that the distributor of the twin pram that we bought, also sells breast pumps. During a conversation about what extras we are going to take with the pram, I asked her opinion about the best pump. A mother of twins herself, she recommended a double, electric, 2-phase, hospital grade pump and I bought it without reading any reviews, regardless of its price and even though our wallet was already in a terrible state. It arrived with the pram when I was 4 months pregnant.

Pregnancy

I didn’t enjoy my pregnancy, one that I have cried, prayed and wished for for YEARS. The whole story behind this is in my blog . Bottom line is that I was put on strict bedrest when I was 21 weeks pregnant. I had to stay close to a hospital with neonatal facilities and paediatricians, 450 km from home. Luckily at my parents, but still, you miss home and have to deal with not being able to “nest”.

Birth

My water broke when I was 32 weeks pregnant and our babies were born via c-section. I wasn’t allowed to see my babies untill 24 hours after delivery. Since my husband had a 5 hour drive from home to hospital, he couldn’t be at the birth.When I finally got to go to my babies in PICU (NICU where booked full), I was overwhelmed with a myriad of emotions and just cried. Cried from relief that they are OK for the moment. For shocked at how tiny they were. For a huge c-section wound burning so much it brings to my knees. And for a deep desire to just to be normal for a change. I wanted to be a new, excited new mommy at home, without a huge c-section scar, without so much pain and without so much heartache.

Colostrum and expressing

A day or two after my babies were born, one nurse unceremonially showed me where the ward’s breast pump is and how it works. I expressed enough colostrum so that my babies could each have the 3ml they needed for their first feed, and a few mls left over. They were given this precious liquid through tubes thinner than a pen’s ink tube. It went through their noses to their tummies. The nurse was over the moon with how much colostrum I had.My breastfeeding/expressing education was limited to being told to express strictly 3-hourly. That’s it. I didn’t know I could express more during the day, less during the night. I didn’t know to express untill a few minutes after flow has stopped. I didn’t know about hand-expressing, let-downs, lipase or actual breastfeeding.The ward had only one pump and you had to search for it every time you want to use it. It was a weird old machine. Since I had my own double, electric pump, I started bringing it to hospital to pump.

Supply issues

4 days later my milk still didn’t come in. Unceremonial Nurse hinted at it. I felt powerless – what was I supposed to do about it? Did I do something wrong? Perhaps I took too many painkillers? Another nurse (I’ll call her Nice Nurse) came to my rescue and said to her my milk will come, my first expressions was a lot of ml’s because it was colostrum.There was another lady with newborn twins in the same ward. I once saw her marking her bottles before putting it in the ward’s fridge- she pumped two bottles full with each expression. I was jealous. I had between 30ml and 150ml per session, depending on the day of time. She looked very stressed about her babies, so I thought she deserves having so much milk and that I will just have to get over my hurt. Besides, I always had just enough for each feed, never too little, and I was sure my supply should improve with time.

Freezing milk

My baby boy didn’t have breathing problems with birth. A day or two after birth things suddenly got worse and he was put on a nasty oscillating ventilator. His tiny body was shaken 24/7. His mouth opened, but no sound could come out. He cried so much. Soundlessly. It broke my heart. I cried. While on the oscillator, he couldn’t get any milk through his tube and was only given some white liquid that went through a tube through his bellybutton, directly into a vein that used to feed him when I was still pregnant. I was on the machine for almost a week, so I froze all the milk that he was supposed to get. Suddenly I had extra milk, although it felt like insult to injury rather than an accomplishment.

When nurses advice against breastfeeding

One day when I arrived at the ward, the matron (I think she was the matron) happened to walk past me. She stopped and asked if I was OK, because I look exhausted. I told her, yes I am exhausted. I stay in the ward until 9pm. Then wash and sterilise all parts before heading to my parent’s home. My dad got relocated and my brother had to move to another university in another city, leaving me and my mom behind with my brother’s old car. My mom had to leave for work at 4:15 in the morning. So when I got home at about 10pm, I had to wash the babies’s blankets and clothing, then eat and have some tea. Then I would be just in time for the midnight expressing. I would sleep until the 3am expressing, wash and sterilise everything, then pack up for the day. I would drop my mom off at work then go to the hospital. This was my routine for so long. I couldn’t nap in my babies’s cubicle, there was no lazy boy. So yes, I was exhausted. My dearest husband came to visit on weekends and would then do as much as possible for me. Washing pump parts, sterilising, setting everything up. I only had to sit up, pump and then go back to sleep. I could marry him all over again.Minutes after I admitted to the matron that I am exhausted, I was swamped by nurses, a social worker and almost a reverend too. They wanted me to reconsider breastfeeding. They wanted me to drink Eglonyl. I knew in my heart I don’t need Eglonyl. They were scared I was going to burn out. I told them I am beyond tired, but my spirit is still fine (read my blog about Baby Blues).

Trying to fight back

I continued expressing. My baby girl continued to get liquid gold. Finally, after a week, my baby boy was breathing well enough to be taken off the oscillating ventilator and only needed a normal ventilator. He could be tube-fed again! Then our baby girl was promoted to cup feeding. Then our boy was promoted to cup-feeding. Such tiny, tiny steps, but we were over the moon for each step in the right direction. On advice from Nice Nurse, we requested that no bottles were to be given. Only cup-feeding. I am so glad we followed her advice, because afterwards I have heard of so many babies not taking to the breast at all. Either due to nipple confusion or to being “spoiled” with the easy flow of the teat versus the sucking needed to get milk sucked out of the breast.

Getting “helped” with breastfeeding

We upgraded to attempting breastfeeding. After more hints about my supply, I started drinking the damn Eglonyl. I hated it. The breastfeeding wasn’t a huge success, because I didn’t know the first thing about latching, positioning, or how to handle my prems. Their tiny little mouths couldn’t even go over my nipple! Still, I tried. We would try latching for 10 minutes, then they were cup-fed. They fed from me only once or twice and still had to be cup-fed afterwards.One day, a nurse (I’ll call her Nurse  Rottenmeier) loudly announced my failure at breastfeeding. Said that if SHE knew I was struggeling, she would’ve done something about it. So I was promptly assigned the “breastfeeding champ nurse”. She pinched my nipple hard and squished it into my babies’s mouths. It hurt. And didn’t help. They still did not develop their sucking skills enough to even lick the nipple.

Follow the rest of Petro’s inspirational story in her next blog post.