The recent discussion on breast pumps sent me back to the materials in my
files that I used to write the chapter on pumps in Riordan and Auerbach's
book. Commercial dairy milking units use two chambered teat cups where vacuum
is generated in the outside chamber which causes the softly padded inner
chamber to uniformly contract around the teat. These units were based on the
parameters of hand milking not calf suckling. I learned much about milk
extraction from the dairy farmer behind my parents farm in Pennsylvania. He
had me put my thumb into one of the teat chambers which felt like a wonderful
massage! No wonder the cows get content when they are milked! The teat
chamber does not collapse or pinch areas of the teat and it covered almost
the entire cow's teat.

The original discussion on this thread started due to a concern that the pump
flange did not cover enough of the areola and could lead to areas that were
not well drained under the edges of the flange. The Whittlestone pump used
the two chambered cup with a foam padded inner lining that contracted against
a large area of the breast. Chele Marmet tested this a number of years ago
and I believe reported that the mothers said it was an efficient and
comfortable pump to use. It was made in New Zealand. It certainly seems that
this type of pump might be a good next generation pump for the mothers we
work with. Does anyone know if the Whittlestone is still being manufactured?

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html