Rachel,

You wrote:

< Check out =
the flanges available for dairy animals-- they are much more =
sophisticated.  Peristaltic action on the teat, softer flanges, designed
=
for each species.>

What an interesting slant your post brings! Can any other dairy-savvy
Lactnuts add anything? I would imagine that each dairy goat is much more
like every other dairy goat, each dairy cow much more like every other
dairy cow, than human mothers are to each other, but I could be very
wrong.

I am remembering diagrams I have seen of dairy animal's udder and teats.
There is actually a single cistern inside each teat, so of course that
differs from the the human nipple, which does not actually have a cavity
filled with milk. But peristaltic action on the milk sinuses? Now THERE'S
a pregnant idea!

How fascinating that would be to see dairy milking equipment! Just where
could we check  them out? Must we wait for the county fair? Wouldn't that
be an interesting display at a convention! We wouldn't have to have
actual animals model them. (Balloons?!)

What conversations that would trigger! And maybe seed some ideas into the
minds of the engineers of human pumps! Certainly, there must be SOME  way
to crossfertilize these different concepts!

I seem to remember hearing years and years ago of some new kind of double
pump (long name began with a "W" - ??Whittlestone??) being developed in
Australia that incorporated some type of peristaltic action, but I never
heard any more about it. Perhaps the time was not ripe then.

Who knows? Maybe some insightful pump dealers can collaborate on
"building a better mousetrap"! (That's about how painful some women
describe some pumps!)

K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio (Where it's a balmy 55 degrees this afternoon!)

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