Pumping Products

I've finally ordered myself a hands-free pumping bra to take the place of the improvised methods I currently use to pump and keep productive at work.  I've heard good things and I hope it works well.

But in reading the creator's story, well, I'm kinda sad for her.  No, sad isn't the right word.  She's happy with her choices and has a successful business.  I just note with interest her reasons for pumping:

When my husband Mike and I started our family, we decided that breast milk was the best choice for our babies. We made the choice to pump primarily so that Mike could feed our children and therefore bond with them as I was.

And there's no doubt about it, the convenience benefits of pumping are a big plus too:

• a helping hand is always an option: as a small business owner, I never really had maternity leaves to stay home and concentrate on just taking care of my babies, so I had to juggle doing that and working in the home at the same time. Occasionally, my sister or my mom or anyone else could help out with this by bottle-feeding them for me.
• both my girls were really lazy nursers (suck, suck, rest, suck, suck, rest....45 minutes later!!!) and therefore a faster bottle feed was sometimes a must.
• pumping helped with my milk production.
• although I was comfortable with breastfeeding in public places, the ogles and stares indicated to me that not everyone else was! And that darn receiving blanket was forever falling off my shoulder and flashing my milkers for all the world to see!  I wish I had known about MoBoleez back then.  I would have bought one PDQ!

 I should ask my husband to guest post on this but, I just don't get this idea that dads miss out when they don't get to feed the baby.  They miss out on the birth experience too, but I don't seem them clamoring to share in that bonding moment.  Fidg's dad bonded with her over diapers. Laugh, but there's lots of good face time during changing.  I hate, hate, HATE pumping, so that could explain my reaction to this notion as well.

I see this lazy-nurser thing sometimes. Is this a real thing? My kid nursed for freaking EVER at the start. It was one of the biggest contributors to my baby blues (love that term too) and my general frustration during the early weeks/months.  But a lactation consultant never called it "lazy" - she pointed out that was just my baby's hard-wiring and in no way defective despite being inconvenient to me.  I think the notion that if baby nurses longer than 20 minutes there's something wrong contributes to ditching breast feeding entirely (regardless of whether one moves on to expressed milk or formula).

Pumping can help with production, yes.  Though exclusive pumping from the start can present some problems, so I think that point might be a wash.

Oh and public nursing!  Not her fault others stared at her and a damn shame this figured into her decision at all. I totally understand it, but until we normalize the sight of nursing mothers, this will just keep going. 

Her decision isn't wrong and her reasons are valid - but the reveal the same barriers exist in Canada as in the U.S.