Ep. 119 – Breast Pump Review Pt. 4

Transcript:

Ep. 119 – Pump Review Pt 4

This is Maureen Farrell and Heather ONeal and this is The Milk Minute. We’re midwives and lactation professionals bringing you the most up-to-date evidence for all things lactation. So you can feel more confident about feeding your baby, body positivity, relationships, and mental health. Plus, we laugh a little or a lot along the way. 

So join us for another episode. Welcome to the Milk Minute, everybody. Hey, Hey! We’re back with more about breast pumps. Yes. This is part four of our breast pump series. Yeah, so I’m really trying to capitalize on my boobs right now. Said no one ever.

Yeah. Well, you know, because this is the last babe. Presumably the last time I’m gonna lactate unless like, you know, the grandkids need it in 30 years and so I know I said I was probably gonna stop pumping at one year, but that is come and gone. And here I am still pumping sometimes, but I, Heather, I’ve just been having so many health problems recently and lactation kind of feels like the only thing that’s going well.

Listen, do what you’re good at. Lean into your strengths. Yeah. If that’s what makes you feel good, you do it girl. And I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to send any more milk donations, but then I just sent another 200 ounces off, which felt really good. And I was like, okay, like, I’m gonna try at least for one more donation.

And they don’t accept donations after 18 months. And that’s only a couple more months. Why is that? I think at that point, probably the nutritional composition is just like, not acceptable for premature babies anymore. You know, like toddler milk becomes really different. But I’m not totally sure.

And I cannot remember if we asked Denise about that when we interviewed her. I don’t think so. Yeah. But anyway yeah, so they accept milk up to 18 months. So I think I’m just gonna go for it. Well, if you all are interested in milk donation, we will put a link in our show notes to our Milk Bank interview with Denise, mm-hmm , who is the director of the Mid-Atlantic Milk Bank.

And you can learn all about milk donation and we will also link their website if you are interested in becoming a donor. Yeah. And so for my last donation, Heather, do you want to make an in-person trip with me to the milk bank? I really do. Okay. I think we can do that. I’ll have to ask them whenever I’m like almost ready to do it, I’ll send them an email and we’ll see what’s possible.

That’s awesome. Yeah. I love that this is catching on because I’m sure there were naysayers when milk banks were first trying to get going saying no one will ever just donate. Yeah, for sure. And people do all the time. They have, they have lots, lots of milk to go around for the NICU babes.

Yeah. It’s pretty awesome. And it just, I don’t know, it feels really nice to be able to give something right now when my body just doesn’t have a lot to give. Yeah. Well, I am hoping I don’t have any health issues because I am losing my insurance. Oh Lord. Because I am stepping back from my job at the university so I can focus, good for you, more on my lactation clinic and my postpartum support group and the podcast. And as it turns out, you don’t have to do it all. Although it is funny because when I, when I originally put in my notice, they immediately talked me into teaching two summer classes and then word on the street says I’m actually still listed in their system for teaching in fall.

So I’m not sure if I actually quit. You tried though. You gave it the college try. I gave it the old college try to quit the college, but anyways, yes. We should be losing our insurance soon. And because of that, the last time Heidi went to the dentist and Theo’s is coming up and I’m about to do the same thing.

I said, Hey, we’re losing our insurance, so if you’re gonna do x-rays or anything like that, can we do them now? And they said, well, we don’t usually do them until the kid is four. And I’m like, well, she’s very mature. I was like, why don’t you just give it a go? And they were like, all right. I mean, the machine is pretty big and scary.

You know, the one that looks like a spaceship. Heidi gives no shits and she loves an opportunity to look like a grownup. And she’s like, see, I’m a grownup. I’m big now. She likes attention. So I’m sure all of them being like, okay honey. Yes. Both of my children are attention. Yeah. Seeking for sure. She did amazing. Awesome.

So they, they put her like standing up holding onto the handlebars with her teeth biting that little stick. I hate that thing, but I think it’s cuz my bite is not aligned well for it. It’s very uncomfortable. Oh, well, she did great. And it was a whole, you know, 15 seconds or whatever. And it went all around her head.

She held really still. And then even more impressive than that, she actually did the bite plates. Oh man. No one likes the bite plates. They’re so uncomfortable. And she had like, her eyes were welling up with water and she just looked over at me and I was like, you’re doing good. And she’s like Ahaha.

She nailed it. It was amazing. They were like, we have never actually been able to get x-rays on a three year old. Wow. So this is monumental. So I was very proud of her. Well, my three year old is special. Mine is special. I mean, she’s the size of a five year old. Yeah. Oh man. I feel that. So I don’t know if you have this experience with Heidi, but this is my chronic like experience with Griffin in public is that he is six.

Honestly, he is the size of some 10 year old’s, like he’s tall and he speaks pretty maturely but his impulses are very much a five, six year old. And so like often, you know, for, in like a public space where he can play and whatever, man, some parents get fucking judgey and like certainly treat him like an older kid who’s like, acting out and misbehaving.

Versus like totally appropriate behavior for a kid his age. I actually had that problem myself as a child. Yeah. But not with impulse control. More like people thought I was more mature than I really was and would tell me things that I definitely did not need to hear.

 You know, like things that they assumed I could handle and I did, but I think that’s actually served me in this capacity because now I’m able to sit with people and they just tell me the craziest stuff. And I’m like, yep. And you’re like, my trauma response is really kicking in. But not because it’s just kinda like, ah, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, you know?

But anyway, so it’s wild. We’re just trying to keep it all together. You and I, over here mm-hmm. You’re trying to get better and I’m trying to not get sick, so I don’t have to bankrupt my family for this wonderful adventure I’m going on. Oh, I did forget to tell you something, but tell me about your adventure first.

I mean, the adventure is just my business. Just trying to really like go full tilt. I was like, are you going somewhere? No, literally not. No, the adventure of life. Got it. So I got my first significant nipple wound for this breastfeeding experience. Oh. Which like with Griffin, I feel like it was like every other day, some shit was tearing my nipples apart, but Lyra, I was like so careful in the beginning and she had a great latch after we worked on it.

But she has teeth and she was really sick recently. Her fever got up to 105. Oh, it was a rectal temperature, but it was terrifying. Yeah. Anyway, horrible fever that scared the be Jesus outta me. But anyway, she was acting sick, which she never does. And she was super fussy and like nursing all night and in her sleep, she bit me, you know, it’s not her fault.

I’m only a little bit mad. But she left a wound and then I spent like the next week trying to heal that as you do cuz she was still fussy and sick and nursing all the time. So for about a whole day, I just pumped off that side. Cause I was like, I can’t deal with her like nibbly comfort, feeding, BS on that side right now.

And then the next day I alternated every other feed pump. And like, of course she chose that wonderful time to nurse, like a newborn. Right. Mm-hmm. And it’s okay. And it’s totally normal. Oh my God. But it was inconvenient. Mm-hmm. And then the day after that, I like probably gave that side a rest for two feeds out of the day.

And kind of did that for another couple days. And I used salve and silverettes. And then finally, by the end of the week, I was like, okay, I’m not like, like holding in a shout when you nurse anymore. Yeah. Oh, that’s so hard. Have you ever used Medi Honey? I have not on my nipples, but I have on other things.

I like it. It’s done wonders for some of my patients with nipple wounds. And can we use that before one? Uhhuh. Yeah, because it’s pasteurized. Oh yeah. It’s sterilized. Hmm. Yeah, so they sterilize it and they put it in a paste. The only thing about it is if you’re gonna put it on your nipple, please know that the pH of your nipple and the pH of the paste are different.

So when you put it on, you will find that it initially burns a little bit. I bet. And that resolves and it’s a little grainy because of the honey. I’m sure it’s a little, but it works really well. It’s nature’s ointment. Cool. Okay. So today we’re going to review the Motif Luna, Ameda Mya Joy, Ameda Mya Joy, the Ameda Mya Joy.

And that’s it. That is all. Just two. But I wanted to, we’re gonna also talk a little bit about some interesting thoughts about flange sizing. Yeah. And, and we have a little email from one of our patrons, listeners, patron. Yes. Yeah. We have a little email from a patron too, about pumping. So, you know, a couple things to talk about today.

Couple, few things. So the patrons to thank today are Cecilia from Milan, Italy, and Chrissy R from West Virginia, who happens to be a moderator in our Facebook group. And we thank you so much. We really appreciate all of the support that you give us at this podcast that helps keep the lights on and the audio rolling.

Yeah, we truly appreciate it. All your contributions, big and small, mean a lot to us. And friendly reminder, Maureen and I both accept private lactation consults and both of our links to sign up for those are in the show notes always. So you should be able to click on any episode and access those at any time.

So we have an email from our listener, Julie, from Virginia, plus a question. Okay. Two in one. I’m ready. Here we go. Julie says, thank you so much for your podcast. I discovered it through the Big Fat Positive Podcast when I was about four months postpartum. By that time I had been exclusively pumping for a few months due to latch issues and was back at work.

I wondered if your podcast would be helpful for me as an exclusive pumper and I’ll admit I tuned in worried I’d encounter the same judgey tone that made me feel like second class lactator like other lactation advice spaces. Boy was I pleasantly surprised. Thank you for all the helpful evidence based advice for pumping moms, especially your recent pump review episode.

I have learned so much, and even when an episode doesn’t apply to me personally, I love to tune in to hear you ladies. The podcast has really helped keep me motivated when I wanted to quit. And make me feel like a superhero as I get closer to my goal of one year of breast milk for my son. My question is how did you celebrate and or mark the end of breastfeeding?

Since I only pump, I am really looking forward to weaning. I know some do breast milk jewelry, but I’m not really into that. I really wanna do something for me since I’ve sacrificed a lot to be able to feed my baby from my body this year. Any ideas? Thanks, Julie. I love all of that. Okay. I didn’t really have a very definitive weaning moment for Griffin because he weaned so slowly. Right.

We breastfed for years. I did get a breast milk necklace. I loved getting the jewelry. I know it’s not your thing, Julie. But there are also companies that make like commemorative pieces that are not jewelry. Like there’s one, I noticed, Tree of Hope Creations, I think, that makes these cute little like wooden, like things with breast milk pieces in them. But, you know, If you don’t wanna look at something like you don’t want an object to commemorate it with cuz there’s charms and you can get like little breast milk resin roses, I mean all kinds of stuff, but you know, like my thought would maybe be like, let’s celebrate freedom from the pump, right?

Like travel. Pampering. Mm-hmm, something where you can kind of flaunt that you don’t have to pump on a schedule. Mm-hmm. Well, so here’s what I would suggest, because you’ll think you remember what it was like, but you won’t. Mm-hmm. You will think that you will remember all of the parts and pieces and hard work and time and the messy buns on the top of your head and the leaking and the spilled milk.

You won’t. You’ll remember some of it, but it really just kind of feels like one big pumping session and then it’s over. So I would recommend getting a lifestyle photographer to come to your house. Oh, that’s a great idea. And don’t dress up. Just be normal. Just pump your last pump and have it documented with, you know, your sweet son there with you. Have your family just go about business as normal, because you will love to have those pictures of a normal day in the life, but like high quality pictures of you doing that.

One where you can look and be like, wow, I look like a goddess. Just like sitting on the couch, I think. Yeah, because you think you look like bad, you know, like, oh, I look such a mess. It’s all about the lighting. The lighting and also it’s perspective. Yeah, because 30 years from now, when you look back and you’ll be like, wow, I was gorgeous.

Like, look, yeah, look at. That’s a great idea. Good work I did. So not a posed shoot. A lifestyle shoot. Yeah. Love that. Thank you, Julie. That’s actually a really great question and I hope that helps a lot of people. Yeah. And also if you guys are weaning soon, just weaned, weaned before and you did something special to commemorate that let us know. Comment, you know, on our social media posts or send us an email or message.

We would love to give people more ideas and shout you out. And you can email us at MilkMinutePodcast@gmail.com.

Hey everybody, Heather here with some good news for you. If you’ve been wanting a lactation consult with me, but you’re not really sure how to go about it, I finally can take some insurance. So if you have Blue Cross blue Shield, Anthem, or Cigna PPO, there’s a very good chance that you can get your visits a hundred percent approved with me.

So if you fill out the short form, it’ll take less than two minutes in the show notes with your insurance information, we’ll know, in as little as five hours if you’re approved and then we’ll throw you right on my calendar. And then we get to hang out and guess what? It’s not just one visit. I can see you prenatally.

I can see you before you go back to work. I can see you when you start solid foods. I can see you through weaning. I mean, we got this whole journey covered. So shout out to those insurance companies for valuing this as work and I’m here for you every step of the way. So click the link in the show notes to learn more about my private consults and make sure that we can get you what you need.

I look forward to working with you. Bye.

All right. Take us in. Pump number one. Okay. Well, first I’m gonna say, I decided to review these two pumps in particular with the Motif Luna and the Ameda Mya Joy, because I have seen them covered by even the cruddy insurances so many times. And I have had so many people be like, which one’s better? You know, they show me the three pumps that are covered and it’s like the Medela Pump In Style, the Motif and the Ameda.

And I’m just like, don’t know, can’t say never held them in my hands. So I got these two and typically for pumps, I’ve used them for at least a week to give you like a good idea of what’s going on. So here’s my question, Heather. Do you wanna start with the good or the bad? Bad. Okay. Are you, are you ready? Cuz it’s kind of bad. Yes.

Okay. Let’s start with the Ameda Mya Joy. I did not like this. So I was lucky enough, by the way, to find like the fancy kit unopened on eBay for 20 bucks. What? But new the kit that comes with the so it’s small hip clip pump that you can plug in or use double a batteries in.

And then it comes with all of the parts and a hand pump attachment, and a bag to keep it all in. So that whole kit together costs $219. And then the basic kit, that’s like just the parts in the pump and nothing extra is $134, so like affordable, but I did not like it. It’s small. It’s quiet. It’s cute. It doesn’t have suction.

No? I wanted to love it, right. Because I was like, love affordable pumps. Love a portable moment. This is not it. Let me, let me I’ll turn on for you. Why not?

It’s not super loud. I’m gonna hand it to you to hold. Okay, you can play with it. It has a stimulation mode and an expression mode. As far as the cycle speed goes, it looks like a Tamagotchi. It kind of does like it. Like a big one. And then I think for stimulation, it has like six strengths of suction. And what 12 for expression?

Something like that. Yeah. Six for stimulation and 12 for expression. Yeah. Yeah. And I tried to use this. I was like, okay, I’m gonna use it for my regular nap time pumps and like leaving the house pumps for a couple of workdays. I had to pump after every time to fully empty. Oh, nice. Tried all my tips.

Tried every setting combination. It didn’t work. What flanges do you use with these? So they have kind of a unique backflow protector situation that I wanted to show you totally set up. So you can take it apart and look at the weird stuff in it. They, it came with 25 and 28 millimeter flanges. Ugh. Why?

I don’t know. So I used my regular inserts that I use with every other pump. Right. And I really just like, I try to make these experiments, like my normal things, so I can kind of expect what I usually expect out of it. Folks. I just like, I would get, you know, at a normal pump where I probably get like two ounces total, I would get like a half ounce, total.

I mean, just wildly under, under emptying me. So take that, that cap off the backflow protector, Heather, and look at what’s in it. Just like pop it off. Yeah. So the backflow protectors, instead of being like a disc, they’re like a cylinder on top that you put a little, like a cup of silicone in and then a cap over the top.

It’s interesting. How does the suction get through it? It sucks like anything you can plug it in and look if you want. It seals around the top there. And then that whole little cup of silicone, like depresses when it suck. Oh, yeah. And then I did try out the hand pump too. And the hand pump was decent. I will say that. It fits on the regular flange from their pumping kit so you don’t have to buy anything new.

You just have to buy this one item that like pops in there and then the regular flange and bottle system from that pump fits into it. Yeah, and I was just so disappointed because it’s such a widely covered pump and it’s not that expensive. And I’m always just hoping for more affordable, reliable options for people, you know?

And I was just disappointed. I mean, I kind of like that there’s double A’s because yeah. You know, although those are expensive, they’re easily accessible. The thing that I don’t like about having replaceable batteries, as opposed to a rechargeable one is you don’t have any way to gauge how much battery life is left in the pump.

Oh. And you know, when pumps are low in batteries, sometimes they just don’t suck as well. And so this was my problem, too, with the Medela pump in style, when you could, it comes with a battery pack, you can use. There’s no way to know if those batteries are getting low. So you’re like, is it my supply today?

Is it my period coming? Do I need to change the batteries on this? You know, whereas like with the rechargeable ones, they have a little icon on their screen that shows you when the battery’s low and you can be like, huh, I should recharge it and see if that’s the problem first. So I don’t know. Okay. It, it was not love Heather.

Okay. So do you like the reverse backflow protector that’s on the top in cylinder form instead of a disc form? I feel like it wasn’t like particularly more or less convenient in any way. And I don’t know that it functions better. It didn’t really seem to get any milk on it when I pumped so that’s always nice.

Yeah. The one thing that I am like, Good job Ameda, is that their hand pump attachment fits right onto everything else and you don’t have to buy a whole new thing. I can show you how it works. Yeah. Show me how that works. Do you need this piece? Yeah. It’s like the Spectra. It doesn’t completely come apart.

Yeah. Okay. So you have your normal flange with the backflow protector attached. You pop off the tubing and take out the silicone part of the backflow protector, which looks like a, a large silicone thimble. Yeah. And then for the hand pump attachment, it has like a little stopper that goes inside that point, and then you snap it on around the bottleneck.

And then it fits nicely in your hand and you squeeze it, like you’re squeezing a stress ball. Okay. So I actually found that pretty ergonomic. And you could like rotate it around to be a little bit more comfortable. I felt like as a hand pump, it was, I don’t particularly love hand pumps, but I felt like it worked fine.

And I actually got more hand pumping than I did using the actual pump. Well, that’s interesting. Yeah. So that’s clearly a suction problem or it’s the reverse backflow protector, cuz yeah, I don’t know. It’s weird. Something is not happening with this pump. If you at home are listening and you’re like, dang, that’s my favorite pump.

Tell me why you like it. It, well, it also could be that the flange size is just too big. I mean maybe, but here’s the thing though. Like even if I’m using the wrong flange size, it’s the one I’m using on everything. So I would expect to get the same output that I do with other pumps. Right. That’s why I’ve been trying to keep I’m using the same inserts. Oh.

That I do with everything else, because I feel like that levels the playing field a little bit, if I’m using the same fit. And you use the Legendairy inserts. Yeah. Yeah. So I’ve been using those for every pump I’ve tried. Interesting. I just wonder how it would work with there. There is something to be said for the hard plastic flanges that actually fit correctly, and it puts more pressure at the base of that nipple, which could squirt more milk out.

So I wonder if they, do they even make one that is a 19 or a 17, or? I don’t think they make smaller sizes. I think you have to use inserts. That’s crazy. I was just watching a Gold Conference, flange size fitting CEU the other day. And I got, I’ll put a link to the presenter’s name in the show notes because I don’t remember it off the top of my head, but she was wonderful.

And she said that cows, dairy cows, actually in general, on average, use a 25 millimeter flange size and showed in the camera. Cow flange on a cow and a human flan size, a 24 to 25. And she’s like, 24 is what comes standard with every single pump for humans and cows use 25. She’s like, explain that to me. Yeah.

She’s like, I do not look at human beings and say, wow, those are the same size as cow udders. And now like the function of a cow teat and human teat are a little bit different because human babies have to form the teat with their suction. Cow babies don’t. It’s like a straw. So there is some function difference that makes me be like, Hmm.

Okay, this analogy’s good. But like, I do have questions. And then I do wanna say that the dairy industry has about 200 times more studies on milk than any human lactation studies. Mm-hmm. Period. Like Heather and I were trying to research an episode. We had like thrown out there, like, oh, let’s talk about milk fever.

Y’all when I, I was like on my Google scholar, you know, on my Google scholar. And I’m like milk fever, lactation fever. All of the terms I could think of to search for this one article about human lactation, like a scholarly one, one like case study and then 200 articles about milk fever and cows.

Like, this is not an exaggeration. And it’s not okay. And I was like, cool. Don’t know if we’re even talking about the same condition here because they seem totally different. Have no idea what’s happening. PhD, student candidates, milk fever, go. Right? Put it on the list. Anyway. We are not doing an episode on that right now.

There. I don’t even know where I’d start. Anyway. I do think it’s odd that the Ameda Mya Joy would only have two flange sizes. And especially because it comes with; it’s one piece, the flange and the reverse backflow protector. It’s all one piece like the Spectra is. So I mean that that’s really limiting.

Yeah. Now Ameda is one of like the OG breast pump companies. So this is like their cheapest pump. And I’m gonna double check on the sizes for their flanges because maybe I’m wrong. Okay. Flange size, huh? You, the one I’m looking at is holy shit, 32 millimeter and 36 millimeter. What? What kind of cows are we milking?

What is happening? By the way there’s been studies done on the average diameter of human nipples. And it’s debatable, but on average, it’s somewhere between 14 and 16 millimeters for human beings. So why in the actual heck, are we using 24s for everything, plus? You know, yes, there are outliers and that’s fine.

All nipples are wonderful. And we should accommodate them. Absolutely. Like people should all be able to find sizes that fit. Okay. They do have down to 21 millimeters. You have to pay 24 extra cents for it though. Oh, but nothing below that. Okay, good to know. No. Yeah, it’s frustrating, but I, I will say like, Ameda is one of the original like hospital grade pump companies.

And they’re, let’s see, like, if you remember, when we talked about the history of breast pumps, we did mention them. And they have a couple like the Ameda Platinum and Elite that are like their multi-user hospital grade pumps that I’ve heard great things about. But yeah, the Mya Joy. No, thank you. Okay, so that, what, what letter grade are you gonna give it?

You know, I feel like I’ve decided on absolutely arbitrary grading systems for every episode. So I should just make up a new one for this one and out of 10 stars, this gets a two. Oh, whoa. Mm-hmm. Got it. If it was a hotel, there would be bed bugs. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I may as well stick on theme of being inconsistent, right? Yes, absolutely.

Okay. Now why don’t you bring up the spirits a little bit. Okay. Tell us about the Motif Luna. I will. I’m excited to tell you about the Motif Luna. I, I, if you didn’t know, I go into every one of these expecting hatred. Yes. I’m like pumps suck, companies and corporations just want my money.

They don’t make products that are great. This is a good product guys. So shiny. It is basically like a Spectras like little sister, like she’s real similar. So the Motif Luna is a little bit smaller than the Spectra but it has a bacon mode. A stimulation mode. And then it has a couple of different expression cycles that are very similar.

So the simulation mode is 60 pumps per minute versus the 70 from Spectra. And then I’ll, I’ll play it for you. Ooh, it’s not gonna reach. I got the plugin version cuz I’m cheap.

Very vibrating. Yeah. Very vibrating. Just like the Spectra. It has speeds 46, 42 and 38. Basically exactly like the Spectra, except it doesn’t have the 54 and the 50. So I was a little concerned cuz I usually use those faster speeds to get the most milk. And I was like, ah, it doesn’t have those. I’m not gonna get any milk.

My first pump was a great pump and I was like, cool, let’s try this again. So I actually ended up using this for longer than I intended to cuz I liked it. Oh. The suction is I think just not quite as strong as the Spectra, but does it need to be? I don’t think so. But does it have a nightlight? Yes. Look. Bang.

Oh, go. It has a nightlight. I like it. And I like the little handle. Yeah. It has a nightlight. It has a little handle. So you can buy so base, like this version without a battery is $189. And then with a battery it’s $229. So pretty like competitive pricing with the Spectra. Yeah. And I love it. And usually the non-battery version is covered by insurance.

And typically you have to pay an additional $40 to get the battery one. If you have it, definitely do that. I’ve heard it has a great battery life. I, I am unwilling to spend extra money if I’m actually buying these pumps to review as opposed to people sending them to us. So I didn’t get it, but now that I’ve used it, I’m like, maybe I should have gotten the one with the battery.

Yeah. Cause I like it. Yeah. I like that. It’s short. Yeah. I feel like it could slide into a shelf easier. That’s like a shorter shelf, you know, like in a bookcase or a nightstand or something. Yeah. I mean, it’s a cute design and I like that it’s just a little bit smaller than the Spectra, cuz it’s a little chunky.

Yeah, which is fine, but it just means like a lot of the pump bags and stuff don’t accommodate that pump. But yeah, it’s, and it’s like not super heavy, you know, for something of this size. And I just, I loved it. I didn’t expect to love it guys. I will say it looks cheaper than the Spectra. You know, pick it up, hold it in your hands.

It definitely like it’s maybe I take that back. It’s pretty sturdy. There’s something about like the blue and the pink. You know what I think it is though? Part of the pump that I like of the Spectra. I don’t know why, but things that are a glossy finish versus a matte finish, make me feel less good about them. Yeah. Why is that? This has a glossy finish and the other one has a matte finish, I guess this one would be easier to clean.

Yeah. But slippery. Yes. I think that’s why, because when my phone is very glossy, I drop it constantly. Yeah. That friend’s going in the toilet. yeah, that, that friend is not staying anywhere. So I always have to get like the absolute rubber casing everywhere on my phone otherwise it’s like for sure gonna be, yeah.

Yeah, but like, I was super impressed with this one. Now I do have to add, I’m not reviewing this pump, but I did recently do a consult with someone with a different Motif pump and I did not like it. It was the Motif Twist. Hated it. Felt like it was cheap and didn’t have good suction and had really few options. Titty twister. And every time I see this, I’m just like, come on, like you make one real good pump. You couldn’t make them all really good? It was their like fully covered by insurance pump. Mm-hmm. You know, it was the other one offered except for the Medela and just like I don’t know. I have not tried the duo though.

And that’s their like portable battery powered one. I’ve heard good things. You know, Motif, if you wanna send us some more to try, I’ll give it a, a good go. Yeah, please do. We had another pump that we wanted to talk about that we do not have in person, but we would like to try in person and just like, get our hands on, but we had some concerns about the manufacturing design.

Yeah. Okay. I don’t know about what y’all’s social media ads look like, but I get targeted really hard for breastfeeding stuff. The Babyation pump has been on my Facebook ads, like aggressively for weeks. Go Google this guys because it’s, it’s marketed as this like innovative all in one.

It’s like this shiny little box and inside are cooler packs and milk bottles and the pump; everything’s in there. And here’s the twist that I feel uncomfortable with. You only wear the flanges and your milk goes through tubes into the bottles that stay in that cooler. Yeah. We pretty much ruled that one out about a hundred years ago because of all the infection risk.

And you can find that in our history of breast pumps episode, which we will link in the show notes. Yeah. And I made multiple comments and stuff like on these ads being like, Hey, so what about safety? And also like, why are, why are you giving us something we have to literally constantly throw the tubes out and get new ones.

They recommend replacing them every 24 hours, which leaves me the question of, are we washing them in between because they’re like feeding tubes, right? Are we rinsing them? What is happening? Oh, and tell us about the price of how much these replaceable tubes cost. Oh yeah. It looked like about $99 for like a month’s worth or something.

I mean, that’s cost prohibitive. If you already bought the damn pump. That’s crazy. I’m not cool with that. I’m not cool with my breast milk going through any small tube and staying there and contaminating the next pump. No. And so I just looked at that and was like, sorry, this is not the innovation you think it is.

At all. Yeah. Cute bag. Right. But this design has, I mean, it’s great. I feel like though, I, I kind of feel like this is like something where the person who designed it maybe has never breast fed because I don’t know that moms actually want their pump and cooler and everything all in one little, like part plastic briefcase together.

I feel like we’re trending toward wearable pumps that actually work, battery life, small, discrete. And this is like a big case mm-hmm so I’m not sure what’s discrete about this. Sweet a suitcase to roll around. That’s amazing. Yeah, I I’m just like this brought up so many questions. I just don’t feel like it’s a leap forward.

No, I feel like it’s a huge leap backward. But you know, if you are in the Babyation group, please reach out and let us know how we’re wrong. We would love to be proven wrong. Please tell me what you’re doing to keep babies safe cuz this seems like a dumpster fire. Yeah. also, I just wanted to touch base about the Limerick Joy mm-hmm because Maureen loved the Limerick Joy, and I was all excited to use this as my office pump because it’s a multi-user pump and you don’t have to size the flanges.

Yeah. They fit everyone because they collapse on your nipple and kind of squeeze and sandwich your nipple, like a baby’s mouth would. However, I am zero for two in my patients in the office that I’ve tried it on for it working well, you know, we’ve tried different settings. We’ve tried, you know, restimulating the mode mm-hmm, you know, redoing the massage mode.

Nothing. So it like very significantly decreased output for them compared to either of their pumps and they had different ones at home. So in this gold conference, flange fitting CEU that I was doing, she had mentioned the same thing. That she’s had some patients that the Limerick Joy worked really, really well for and some that, it just didn’t.

So obviously we’ve got some anatomy stuff going on in the inside of the breast, which we can’t see. So it’s unfortunate that you just don’t know, you know. You just don’t know who it’s going to be good for, but I love the idea of it. I did notice though that and I just wanted to see what you thought about this, Maureen, my patients that have larger chests, whenever they’re pumping in my office and I wanna be able to visualize their nipples.

I, I ask them not to use their pumping bra because I wanna see what’s going on. Almost a hundred percent of the time when they’re holding their own flanges, they push them super far back into their chest wall. Yeah. And I’m like, try leaning over, like try leaning over and kind of dangling. And they’re like, but will it fall off my body?

I’m like, well, you’re, you’re holding it. Just hold it. Here’s my question. Do they have downward pointing nipples? Yes. Yeah. So the posture, the like positioning of the flange to bottle makes it really hard to position them down. They’re meant to be upright. So the bottle sits vertically. And so when your nipples point down, you get used to having to kind of hike them up so you can have those bottles sitting vertically.

So what I do is I actually face them sideways. So then if I need to dangle pump, I can do that and the bottles don’t like hit my belly. Yeah. You know what I mean? You know, whenever you leak at the grocery store, when you hear a baby cry, your first natural instinct is to push your breasts against your chest.

It’s not a smart move. If you’re trying to like remove a lot of milk, right. It collapses the ducts in on themselves and almost like accordions them and pinches them off. So if you’re pumping like Maureen said, angle those bottles and really try to lean forward mm-hmm and let them kind of dangle as if a baby is latched on that.

Yeah. You’re not gonna take your baby’s face with a boob and just jam it completely into your chest unless you want them to let go. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So what I usually do, cuz as most of you know, I have a larger chest. I think I’m like a G cup right now. It’s a lot. And my nipples do point at my toes. And they also kind of like point outwards in this little silly, silly, fun way.

They haven’t seen each other in a while. But anyway, so I usually wear a pumping bra, so I don’t hurt my wrists but I loosen it all the way and then I incrementally tighten it just till it gets suction. So it’s loose as it can be. And then at the end of my pump, I’ve started doing two things. So I usually try to pump if I’m like able to sit and take time, right?

Not on the go. I try to pump at a table that’s about like chest height or a little higher to where I’m sitting. And then I scoot my chair back so there’s a little room for everything. And I lean forward with my head and my elbows on the table. Like you’re going to sleep in class. And I let the ladies dangle in the space between where I’m sitting in the table and I pump like that for a few minutes.

And then I stay in that posture and I do massage. Single pumping on each breast for about two minutes each. And that usually gets like the very last milk out. You know what else you do? What, whenever you put your flanges on you initially position them. And then I don’t know if you even noticed that you do this, but it’s a technique that I think we’ve never talked about on here before.

You push on one side of your, like right behind your areola to kind of like burp the air out of your flange to get the nipple even deeper mm-hmm and then you put it, you release and you let the nipple go deeper into the flange. I do do that. So you kind of, you burp the air out of the flange and get your nipple in there deeper.

And that’s really important because we need that nipple to be not only centered, but deep enough in the flange that it’s getting the most accurate and pointed pull for the suction. Yeah. Now people with like more elastic nipples probably don’t have to do that, but mine, like just regular pumping they don’t extend very far.

Like, I don’t know. 10 millimeters, 15. And so I have to do that where I like burp a little air out and kind of like force some more breast tissue into that tunnel. Well, I’m wondering also if people aren’t doing that with the LacTeck and the Limerick Joy flanges that have that compressible bit on the bottom.

Cuz remember how we said like, oh the LacTeck is great. I just wish it went a little deeper. Yeah. Because if your nipple doesn’t actually reach that far down in the flange, it’s kind of like just the tip is getting squished instead of the base of the nipple. So try that burping technique if you’re using the LacTeck or the Limerick Joy to see if you can get your nipple in there a little bit deeper so it’s getting compressed in the right area.

Yeah. Cause you kind of want the compression to basically, like you want from where your nipple begins a little bit back on your areola to get compression and then your nipple to get stretch. Yeah. And that it’s hard. It’s like every time we ever talk about pumping, I’m just like, God.

We need actual studies about the most effective way to do this without a baby and without like private companies who are gonna make money off of it being the ones who are directing that research and development. Mm-hmm. Well, someday, maybe, but in the meantime, don’t be afraid to explore, experiment. Yeah.

You know if you have access to other friends’ pumps and you wanna give it a go just one time, just for like 30 seconds to see how it feels, mm-hmm, and you like it better than yours then, you know, to switch. You know, we’re not saying like, and, and like play around with your nipple placement. You know, I often find that it’s sometimes it’s hard to like center your nipple.

Exactly. But I usually find that rubbing on one side is fine. And like, there is a specific placement where I have like, on my left, there’s one little nipple pore that probably like ejects 90% of the milk I make. Like, let’s be honest. Okay. Righty. We don’t, we don’t know her sometimes, but like, I, and it’s just like this one spot.

So I know that I have to kind of position that one spot in a certain way and I’m gonna get more milk. I was always an asymmetrical placement as well, by the way. Yeah. Especially on my right breast. Mm-hmm. For whatever reason, if I had slightly right of center, I would squirt more milk. Yeah. And, you know, I find that especially true with the haakaa and all the other like silicone breast pumps is I need to position it so my nipple is toward the top.

Kind of like, I imagine it is in a baby’s mouth, you know, and there’s a little bit of pressure on one side. And then I actually hand express with that on. Mm-hmm. Because otherwise when I hand express, things fly in 20 different directions and I’m like, that’s cool. So whoever, what, you know, my baby just got a shower, but I didn’t get any milk in the pump in the cup, but yeah, if I do it with one of those on, then I can really do that, like mess free and I catch all the milk.

Yeah. And you might actually be able to experiment with this using the haakaa. So I have a patient right now who will put the haakaa on and hand express, like over the plastic. Yeah. So that’s what I do. Yeah. And just plays around with the placement, but she will get five ounces, nice. Using nothing but haakaa with hand expression in like 10 minutes, which is crazy.

Crazy. Not saying that that’s normal for everybody. I’m just saying that it’s okay to experiment and try new things. Yeah. This has been very helpful. Thank you yet again, Maureen, for trying two more pumps for us, we really appreciate it. Yeah. And Hey guys, if there are pumps you want me to try, let us know, and you can also let those companies know. You can send them an email and be like, Hey, like you should send this to this podcast and we’ll send them an email too.

And sometimes they send us stuff to try. Sometimes they do.

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All right, well, let’s close out with an award. Ah, yes, let’s do that. Let’s see. We have one who is very deserving today. This is from Erica King T. Erica says we’ve had a rough week. Two emergency room visits, several viruses, fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, ear infection, and it’s just been rough. We were down to pretty much twice a day nursing.

She nurses to sleep in first thing in the morning. She’s been nursing so much this last nine days being sick. My supply has caught right up and we had a good review of no dehydration at the last visit. Coming from a barely enough supply in the beginning to responding on demand at 17 months old, this was a big win.

And she posted a very sweet picture from the emergency room visit yesterday. Oh, where the baby is trying to actually jam the bulb syringe up her nose. Ah, that sounds exactly like a toddler. Yeah, Erica, we are so sorry that you haven’t had a rough go with illness. I think you know, although everybody was masked and trying to do the best they could to prevent the transmission of COVID we limited the transmission of a lot of other respiratory things that typically get passed around with kids who were young.

Well, and now that everyone’s unmasking, it’s a free for all. I feel like we’ve just been continually sick since that. Yeah. And by the way, at the hospital in peds in the PICU, they’ve had a lot of like really weird cases of babies and small children that require chest tubes because of pneumonia.

And it’s not COVID and it’s not RSV and it’s not the flu. Scary. It’s just like they can’t handle the respiratory stuff. So I think everybody’s going through it. I know tons of people who are sick right now. We are sending you all the best healing energy. Get yourself some elderberry syrup. We love that. We actually have an episode on cold and flu meds while breastfeeding.

So we’ll link that in the show notes for you as well. What award should we give her, Maureen? I was thinking of the Breastfeeding Rescuer Award. Oh, Breastfeeding Rescuer. That’s a good one. Yeah, because honestly, in these hard times when those babies, all they wanna do is nurse it’s boobs to the rescue.

Yep. Boobs. And then she rescued your supply too. That’s crazy. Yeah. And it’s a reciprocal relationship. I hope you get some sleep after all that though. Cause that, sounds like you didn’t sleep for two weeks. Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. Yeah. All right, Erica. Well, thank you so much for doing your best and submitting your award.

If you would like to submit an award, please know that we prioritize our patrons for awards and you can join us on our Patreon, which is our behind the scenes, VIP membership area and get access to cool merch and behind the scenes content and videos from Maureen and I. You can ask us questions anytime, and all of your donations go straight to producing this podcast for you.

Yeah. And, you know, thanks for listening to another episode of the Milk Minute Podcast. The way we change this big system, that’s not set up for lactating families is by educating ourselves, our friends and our children. Just, just go to patreon.com/MilkMinutePodcast and join, please. Please. We love you. Oh well, we will see you guys next week when we have another exciting episode.

Bye bye. Bye.