Who invented breast pump

Forget the plastic funnel-like devices that look like airhorns. These new devices are thoughtfully designed, app-enabled, and feel more like a nursing baby than a vacuum cleaner. They are easy to use, easy to clean, and they look, if not elegant, at least nice.

A lot of women, like Rudolph, see these as major steps forward. The first breast pump design was patented in by inventor Orwell H. His prototype used a cone-shaped cup placed over the nipple and a pump squeezed by hand to create the suction needed to stimulate milk production. Needham essentially cribbed from the design of a machine for milking cows. That approach remained virtually unchanged until the s, when electric pumps became the norm.

Still, pumps were relegated to hospitals until , when Swiss manufacturer Medela introduced the first electric pump for home use. Medela marketed toward the modern mother, who could continue breastfeeding even after returning to work. Electric breast pumps arrived at exactly the right moment. Forty-seven percent of American women worked outside the home in ; that number peaked at 60 percent just nine years later. Breast pumps allowed women to start a family and return to work while still feeding their babies breastmilk, balancing the demands of motherhood and the workplace.

And yet, many women find pumping a belabored, painful practice surreptitiously done in bathrooms or behind closed doors. Everything about the devices is horrible. Gray and Charles E.

Gassin made changes to the breast pump that are seen in breast pumps through history and still in use today. Most notably, their breast pump included a milk collection vial which was removable from the breastshield. The vial was threaded at the top and could be unscrewed from the flange, much like the milk collection bottles that screw into the breastshields of today. You could also completely disassemble the milk collection kits, making it easier to thoroughly clean each part — thanks, guys!

Joseph H. Hoover endeavoured to make his breast pump more gentle than those available at the time. He incorporated vacuum technology and a spring to make suction from the vacuum less abrupt and more comfortable. By the use of a spring the tension is increased as the air is exhausted and the spring is compressed and decreased as the spring resumes its normal shape, which by the use of weights the tension is increased slightly by the momentum acquired by the descending weight as the air chamber is distended This variation relieves the constant pull on the breast that would take place if the action was direct.

Hubert H. He also focused on ergonomics and convenience by including finger holds, which made it much easier to use with two hands. While previous mechanical breast pump technology was cumbersome and considered for use in medical settings, this was the first that was necessarily intended to be operated by the woman pumping her own breasts.

A flexible tube connected the glass pipe back to a bellows fitted in a box. Drawing included with the first breast pump patent filed in Source: Google Patents. This pewter breast pump from Phisick is a rare find. It includes two different sized cups. The brass pump screws into the pewter cups to provide suction. The pump is likely from Rare antique pewter breast pump source: Phisick. Unlike Willow, the Elvie allows users to pump into reusable bottles.

It also comes in three flange sizes. Neither made it to market, but members of the teams involved later developed the Hush-a-Pump noise-muffling case and the Pump2Baby bottle. The second hackathon, which had over participants and sponsors including breast pump manufacturers Medela and Lansinoh, also focused especially on ideas to help low-income mothers and mothers of color, who face additional obstacles to breastfeeding and pumping.

The people Harambee Care serves, often low-income women of color, sometimes face bias from doctors and nurses, Hatter said.

The team was one of several award winners at the hackathon. This meant that instead of spending time with him and my husband when I got home, I had to go to the bedroom and hook myself up to a breast pump. As I prepared to spend my first free time after a long workday strapped to a machine, then cleaning and sterilizing its many parts, I was reminded again that the pumps themselves are only a symptom of the bigger problems women face when they try to breastfeed and work.

Since the s, more women feel pressure to breastfeed, but there have been few policy changes to really help them do so, Martucci said. For many parents, guaranteed paid leave would lessen the need for prolonged breast pump use.

Absent a larger conversation about paid leave, some cultural changes might be necessary to make breast pumping suck a bit less. They show women using the device in public — one conducting a meeting, another waiting for a bus. If pumping were seen as a normal thing to do, I might have been more comfortable doing it in front of my coworkers. A post shared by Nicole Michele Phelps mrs. Phelps got criticism for pumping in public, Kelman said, but moms flocked to her defense on social media.

Better breast pump technology could be part of that change. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

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By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The impossible quest to build a better breast pump A wave of high-tech, hands-free devices is hitting the market.

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