CHOOSING A PUMPING BRA
IN 4 SIMPLE STEPS
Let’s be honest, spending so much time in a small room fiddling with flanges and tubes and holding your bottles in place for pumping is not the most exciting activity to do for a mom, without considering that your nipples will be most of the time dry and sore!
It is also true that the (physical and emotional) satisfaction of filling a bag of milk for your hungry baby is almost the second most rewarding thing to actually breastfeed.
If you also consider that pumping for 30 minutes x 8 times per day means roughly 4 hours, I mean, 4 hours tethered to a pump doing nothing, then freeing up your hands becomes essential, and that is where a pumping bra starts playing an essential role in a mom's daily life.
Most moms start out without one, but quickly realize it is unsustainable – but how can we choose a pumping bra? Here are some steps to follow for finding the pumping bra perfect for you.
See what is available in the market
Most pumping bras work on the technology of cross-slits within a fabric that can't hold up bottles without losing suction as they are filled heavy with milk – which makes the bra not very useful as you still have to hold it up with your hands. The best-sellers are exorbitant $39 for what looks like: a corset that basically just squeezes your chest in.
Avoid products that produce suction loss
If you are looking for a truly hands-free pumping bra and produce an average amount of milk, beware of most bras out there that work under the same principle and typically begin to sag and lose suction as the bottle fills.
Give importance to hand expression
Some bras like the bustier pumping bra somehow do the job but they don't allow hand massage, and in some cases, it squeezes it too much and puts pressure on the breasts. Hands-on pumping helps you to drain the breast more fully each time you pump, it helps increase your milk supply and helps you provide more of the fatty hindmilk that will help your baby grow. So ideally, your bra will need to allow hand expression!
Get your freedom back
This is the biggest advantage of wearing a pumping bra without staring at the ceiling while holding 2 flanges up for 15 minutes every 2-3 hours, most bras don't work for most people as you can't get them to keep the flanges in place without beginning to sag and lose suction. Make sure to find the one that gives you real freedom and time to move around, read emails, books, scroll Instagram, look at Kabouter videos. A good hands-free pumping bra equals freedom!
Nurturally Pumping Bra
When a Mother of a premie started breastfeeding she tried all of the 4 top-rated pumping bras on the market, even the painfully expensive leading seller, but she still ended up sitting in the bathroom holding up the bottles with her hands.
That was when she asked her husband, who is a mechanical engineer and owner of Chrome Cherry Design Studio for help. He immediately realized that all the bras rely on the pressure from the bra on the breast to hold the bottles in place. As the bottles get fuller the weight becomes too much and tilts the suction cups away from the breast, causing suction loss and leakage.
He said this is a fundamental design error as the bra needs some type of sling around the bottle’s neck to hang it from while it gets fuller and heavier.
That is how he and his wife started to redesign pumping bras to overcome all her complaints. Yes, she had many other issues with the bras she tested and when looking at the online reviews it was clear that other women had the same concerns.
He took on the challenge to design the perfect pumping bra as a special gift for his wonderful wife for being such a superwoman getting it all done, as a mommy as well as a business professional after going back to work, whilst still breast pumping 8 times a day.
We understand that the one thing a new mom never has enough of, is time. Among the many demands on moms' time, pumping does not have to be one of them.
Nurturally Pumping Bra is designed for today’s busy moms on the go. So that they can have more baby time, work time, or simply, “Me Time”.