How to Hook Up a Breast Pump

Use a breast pump to extract breast milk for a baby.

A breast pump enables a lactating mother to extract breast milk to bottle-feed to a baby. Whether your goal is to store extra breast milk for times when you cannot feed your baby or you need to increase your milk supply, regularly using a breast pump will make these goals possible. Properly hook up the breast pump to effectively extract milk.

Instructions

1. Remove the parts of the breast pump and set them out. You should have the pump motor, an A/C adapter, the tubing, bottles for collecting the breast milk, connectors, breast shields, valves and some sort of diaphragm that creates the suction.

2. Insert the A/C adapter into the motor and plug it into the wall.

3. Find the ports where the tubes connect into the motor. If you desire to pump one breast, insert one tube; if you desire to pump both breasts, insert both. If you use only one tube, plug the other connection port to seal it or the pump will not produce effective suction.

4. Insert a valve into the part of the connector that fits into the bottle and screw the connector onto the bottle tightly. Insert the breast shield into the other open end of the connector. Some breast pumps, such as the Purely Yours pump, have a chamber located within the connector where the diaphragm sits to create suction. Other pumps, such as the Medela one, have the diaphragm as part of the pump motor.

5. Place the breast shield squarely onto a nipple and turn the pump on. If you connected the parts properly, you should immediately feel suction. You can adjust the level of suction on the pump motor with a dial, making it higher or lower.

6. Disassemble everything after you finish pumping. Transfer the expressed breast milk out of the bottles and wash all the parts that made contact with the breast milk or your breasts with warm, soapy water. Do not wash the tubing.

Tips & Warnings

• Read the manufacturer instructions for your breast pump. While the general design of many breast pumps is similar, each brand has slight variations that make the user instructions different.

• Pumping should not hurt -- if the suction feels uncomfortable, reduce the strength with the dial.

References

• My Birth Care: Purely Yours
• Medela: Instruction Manuals