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Full Exposure
Is Your Breast Pump Worth It?
By Ann Calandro
A few weeks ago my daughter, my grandson and I shopped at one of those mega-baby stores. Curious, I checked out the breast pump aisle. I was amazed to see the variety. The whole aisle was full from floor to ceiling! All the pumps were bright, attractively packaged and appeared to be very effective. Prices ranged from $30 to $300.
If I were an expectant first-time mother, I would have been overwhelmed. I would probably have chosen a mid-priced pump made by a brand I was familiar with from baby magazines. I would probably think most pumps worked about the same, except some were manual, some were electric, some were single and some were double. As a new mother I would have trusted that they were all fairly good pumps.
There are some advantages to age. Having been a lactation consultant for 13 years now, I know a lot about breast pumps. I have talked to thousands of mothers who have used all the different varieties of pumps, and I know darn well that the majority of them don't work – at all. Yes, they do create a suction, and yes they do make a noise if they are electric, but so what?
Breast pumps that work effectively mimic the sucking of a baby. No pumps truly duplicate a real live baby. Babies work by an exquisite suckling method. Pumps work by creating a vacuum and a suctioning cycle. However, some brands come a lot closer to copying a real baby than other brands.
If I had a large trash bag, I could have skipped down the aisle gleefully tossing most of the pumps in the bag. I had the urge to do just that or perhaps to take a big black marker and write on the good ones "BUY ME!" and on the bad ones "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING ME! USELESS! PAINFUL TO USE! WASTE OF MONEY! YOU'LL BE SORRY!"
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