When my husband Mike and I started our family, we decided that breast milk was the best choice for our babies. We made the choice to pump primarily so that Mike could feed our children and therefore bond with them as I was.
And there's no doubt about it, the convenience benefits of pumping are a big plus too:
a helping hand is always an option: as a small business owner, I never really had maternity leaves to stay home and concentrate on just taking care of my babies, so I had to juggle doing that and working in the home at the same time. Occasionally, my sister or my mom or anyone else could help out with this by bottle-feeding them for me.
both my children were really lazy nursers (upwards of 45 minutes per feeding - yikes!) and therefore a faster bottle feed was sometimes a must.
pumping helped with my milk production.
although I was comfortable with breastfeeding in public places, the ogles and stares indicated to me that not everyone else is! And that darn receiving blanket was forever falling off my shoulder and flashing my milkers for all the world to see!
Even finding the time to pump was a challenge, so I wanted something fast. I wasn't able to use a manual pump as both pregnancies were kind enough to bring along their friend Carpal Tunnel Syndrome - so I rented a hospital-grade, double, electric pump. My letdown was pretty slow though and even with the "skookum" pump, sometimes it took 30 minutes or more to get enough milk for my little ones!
When I started to pump on a daily basis, not only were my hands going numb and aching from holding the horns, I was frustrated by how boring it was! And being one of those never-sit-still-for-a-minute gals, all I could think of the whole time I was pumping was all the other "stuff" that needed to be done! I couldn't even look through one of the magazines in my ever-expanding pile of mail because both my hands were busy holding the horns on my breasts! On one occasion, I actually tried flipping the pages with my elbow and ended up in the chiropractor's office.
Then I thought, "I wonder if...", and my very good friend Google™ and I searched the internet for something that would hold the horns for me. I only found a few products, none of which were readily available in Canada and all of which were "less than attractive" (insert eye roll here). Why is it that when you become a mom, it's assumed that you no longer have any style?
I found a pumping bra - but unfortunately I barely had enough time to pump, let alone change from my nursing bra to my pumping bra and then from my pumping bra back to my nursing bra!
I also found a pumping/nursing bra combo (that kinda sounds like an Olympic event) - but the feedback on this product is that most people only use it for pumping as the third layer makes it bulky and lumpy-looking under your clothes. No thank you to that I said! We're lumpy enough after giving birth, right? File this one with the pumping bra reject.
I also found a pumping bra that wasn't really a bra but a tube top, with a zipper no less - I visualized it splitting or catching as I tried to zip it up over my ginormously engorged breasts!
Then there was the pumping kit with which you had to buy THEIR nursing bra (whether you like it or not) and then attach a bunch of elastics all over the place to hold the horns in place. It reminded me of playing with Cat's Cradle string figures when I was a little girl. Try doing that with Carpal Tunnel!
Finally, I found a pumping band that looked like medical bandages wrapped all around your chest - and all I could think was, "I'm a mommy, not a mummy!" The feedback on this product is that the fabric is scratchy and uncomfortable and that some brands of pump horns are difficult to get into the buttonhole-style openings. Consumers also don't like the permanently attached neck strap and many were cutting it off.
Of all the products that I found, most were well over $30. Shipping to Canada, if they even offered it, ranged from $6.50 to over $50! I do have a US PO Box, however, that involves a 45 min drive (each way), not including border line-ups. I didn't feel this was really an option with a brand-new baby. For my American friends to the south, shipping ranged from free to $9.50 for "standard" service. The bottom line for me was that I would have to fork out a minimum of $40 to get my hands on a product that would enable me to fulfill my mission of perpetuating in overachievement efficiency mode!
My 12 years in the apparel industry and 30 years of sewing experience came in handy when I mocked-up a pumping support (who knows when I had time to do this)? It held the horns on my behalf and therefore freed my hands for other much more important things (like answering a business phone call with spit-up running down the back of my shirt or
reading Dora® Goes for a Ride to my 2-year-old "just one more time"). My pumping sessions melted away while I surfed the internet, paid bills, stayed on top of business emails, caught up on reading or talked on the phone (among countless other tasks).
All kidding aside, I think that breastfeeding and breast pumping are very important topics - topics that millions of first-time parents find themselves in the throes of with no previous experience! Having said that, is it really necessary to be so "serious" about the means by which we feed our children? Why is it that so many people are not even keen on having the word "breast" and the word "feeding" in the same sentence? And why is all the breastfeeding and pumping paraphernalia out there so frumpy?
After more than 400 pumping sessions, I know what a pumping support should offer a nursing mom. I refined the design to be not only functional and user-friendly, but pretty darn funky too! And now I'm offering it to you in three fabulous prints and four fabulous sizes!
Whether your pump is rented or purchased, single or double, battery-powered or electric, you need PumpEase™ hands-free pumping support - Pump without the Frump!™
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