Woman World Web

March 30th, 2009 by Jocelyn Madrigal

Once you make the decision to breastfeed, you might soon find that it is often not the close and calm experience that it is often hyped up to be. Since most breast feeding infants nurse on demand, it really ties you down, cutting out any sort of flexibility. The situation can be even more difficult for the mother who is modest about exposing her breast in public, who cannot feed her baby outside of the privacy of the house. If that sounds like you, then the Avent Isis Breast Pump might be your perfect alternative. It allows you to store your milk for extended periods of time, so you are free to feed your baby in the supermarket or at the kids baseball game. It also allows you to do so with comfort and ease.

Before you being using your Avent Breast Pump, dont forget to sterilize the collection bottles, tubing and other parts of the pumping system. The best and easiest way is to boil a big ol pot of water on the stove and dump in all the plastic pieces, letting them boil for 5 minutes to kill all germs that could contaminate them. Then, go sit in a relaxing and comfortable place and get ready to pump. Remember, its probably going to take anywhere from 10 ” 30 minutes to pump if you havent done this before, so relaxing is key to getting it done and avoiding frustration.

Thankfully, the Avent Duo Isis Breast Pump makes it easy for mothers to pump and to have it feel similar to their infant feeding. Because the pump lets you control the sucking speed and pressure, you can change the settings to be as fast, as slow, as gentle, or as insistent as your newborn sucks. It is recommended that you try to mimic your infants pattern of feeding, as this will ensure you express the most milk.

Once youre done (which should take anywhere between 10-30 minutes) you can store your milk either in the fridge or in the freezer. Its not recommended to store breastmilk in the fridge for more than 7 days, and in the freezer for more than 60 days. The moment you have excess breast milk and youre able to put some away in the freezer or fridge, youll feel a lot better and secure knowing that you have extra milk in case its needed.

Just so you know, its best to store your milk for freezing in special CSF bags that are made specifically for this purpose. The bags come with labels so you can mark when your milk was pumped so you wont look at it a week later at 2 in the morning and wonder if its still good to use. The bags are sturdy and work very well for their intended use. Youll soon have a freezer full of bags if you use your pump regularly.

Pumping takes time to get used to, and you should not get discouraged if it is difficult at first. Often, it takes two or three weeks to get the hang of it. The Avent Duo Isis breast pump makes the adjustment very easy, because it feels like the real thing. It gives you the flexibility of bottle-feeding, as well as the nutritious benefits of breastfeeding. You have the best of both worlds with the Avent pump.