Breast Pump 

Breast pumps have become popular as there are more and more working mums who are away from the baby over the day and cannot physically be there to breastfeed the baby. In other cases mothers look to express extra milk during the day so that the father can take over a night feed and give the mother a few hours of much needed rest. The additional function of the breast pump is to stimulate the breast to produce more breast milk. Hence, dual expression is always better due to higher stimulation and faster expression times.  

We cannot overemphasise the importance of breast milk. It is extremely precious as it carries all the vitamins, nutrients and antibodies which help the young baby to develop a better and stronger immune system. These antibodies fight off viruses and bacteria, preventing diseases and sickness. Your milk is more easily digested by the baby than formula milk which means better absorption levels and better digestion. Breast milk is simply the best for babies.

Hence your breast pump choice becomes take important for maintaining, increasing and expressing. Pumping also means you don't have to be physically there for every feeding even if you're at home. Your partner or another helper can feed your baby the milk from a bottle. Then you can get more quality sleep or take a break from baby care. Father baby bonding can be strengthened. 

Other useful breast pump scenarios:

- stimulate your milk production and boost your supply to feed a premature baby or one who maybe unable to latch on to your breast, or to relieve the pain and pressure of engorged breasts. 

- pumping allows you to keep your milk supply up if your healthcare consultant advises you to stop nursing temporarily because of medication intake that might be harmful to your baby or if you're hospitalised for a short time and can't breastfeed.

Your choice is between electric or manual breast pump to express milk. Usually the recommended choice would be electric breast pump with dual pumping capabilities and with dual phase expression (stimulation followed by expression) 

Important note that if the mother only expresses and does not latch the baby on, eventually the milk supply may start reducing as the baby is considered more effective than any man-made model for stimulation.