Fitting Your Breastpump
Sometimes using a breast pump is painful and your breasts don’t seem to be emptying properly. What then? Well, then it’s time to check and see if your breast pump parts actually fit your breast. You can’t make an ill-fitting breast pump work correctly no matter how hard you try.
The parts that you want to fit your breast correctly are the parts that rest against your breast. If your nipple is too large for the “flange,”"funnel,” or “shield” of your breast pump, you will experience painful chafing, which cannot be fixed without getting a new attachment.
About 1/3 of all women who use a breast pump should have a larger breast shield. If your nipple touches the sides of the of the funnel, you will get sore, and you won’t be able to get your milk out. You might notice little flecks of skin on the inside of the funnel, and your areola (the dark ring on your breast around your nipple) will not appear to move when you pump. You need to see the nipple move freely while pumping, not touching anything and you need to see some movement of the areola as well.
When you shop for your breast pump, you may want to compare your nipple to a nickel, which is about 22 mm (millimeters) in diameter. If your nipple is larger than a nickel, you may need to consider getting a bigger breast shield to go with your pump. Different brands of breast pumps have different size ranges. For example, Medella has shield sizes ranging from 21 mm to 40 mm. Ameda has shields that range in size from 21 mm to 30 mm.
So remember to keep this in mind when you are out shopping for the right pump, because even the best pump in the world can be a waste of time and an instrument of torture if it doesn’t fit you properly.
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