Coach Smith here with a history lesson on the Loyd-B breast pump.

Patrick Loyd, engineer husband of LLL Leader Peggy Loyd of Maryland,
invented the Loyd-B pump in early 1972. Pat had previously hand-built and
maintained electric breastpumps for the Blue Ridge-Potomac LLL groups, which
were rented to mothers of hospitalized babies. Peggy was my first LLL
Leader - I attended a meeting of her group one month before my son Edwin was
born in Nov 1970, and was instantly "smitten" with the ideas presented.
Later, I helped collect the baby food jars for the first batches of pumps
while I was pregnant with my daughter Hannah.

The body of the pump was a standard commercial squeeze-handle, hand-held
sprayer that Pat had modified to reverse the pressures, so instead of
spraying when the handles were squeezed together, a vacuum was created. A
trigger on the underside of the body released the suction. The glass flanges
were hand-blown somewhere and were similar in size and design to current
flanges. The flange connected to a tube leading to a rubber stopper onto
which a baby food jar was attached. The instructions told mothers to
pump-release in cycles similar to the cycles designed into currently
marketed pumps.

You needed large hands to work the pump well, because of the wide distance
between the handles when fully apart. I used one of these for several days
when my youngest son (now 27) aspirated meconium during birth and had to
remain in the hospital for 10 days. (In those days and in that hospital,
parents could stay in the hospital with their babies as long as there was a
room available). I was able to directly nurse Carl at every feed around the
clock and didn't need the pumped milk, but it was very comforting to have a
pump that collected milk relatively effectively and comfortably. Later, our
LLL group in San Antonio rented out these pumps to mothers with hospitalized
babies at 50 cents a week! I still have one of the pumps in my attic
somewhere. Although we lost touch with Peggy and Pat years ago, I dedicated
my Exam Review book to Peggy for her support of ME as a new mother.

Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre www.bflrc.com
6540 Cedarview Ct., Dayton, OH 45459-1214 USA
(937) 438-9458 email [log in to unmask]

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