Why pumping did not work for me — until I learned a secret
(This is the fourth of what will become quite a few posts on our unusual breastfeeding journey. So feel free to skip if it’s not your thing.)
When I started pumping, it was painful. So painful that I was close to tears during pumping and, afterwards, any time even a soft shirt would touch my nipples, I’d wince in pain.
A bunch of pumping moms said, “It gets better over time.”
Then a professional pumping consultant in the USA told me, “Pumping shouldn’t be painful. Check your flange size.”
She told me about how to make sure my flanges fit right. I measured my nipples and then bought larger flanges. The first few minutes of that pump were SO much better. My nipples had room and milk was flowing. Then, slowly, my nipples seemed to fill the flange and the milk STOPPED flowing.
I panicked. I found even larger flanges. But then the same thing happened. Then I found the biggest flanges around. And, again, the same thing happened.
When I went to a local breastfeeding consultant, I told her my nipples were so large I couldn’t find a flange to fit them. She looked at them, shook her head, and said, “They don’t look big to me.”
Then I read a statistic someone posted in a pumping group. It said something like less than 4% of women need a flange size larger than 28mm. But here I was, with a flange size 32mm and it seemed too small. Was this possible?
Then it hit me. I had read that elastic nipples were rare, that it was when your entire nipple was pulled into the flange so that it hit the end of the flange. That wasn’t happening to me. But what WAS happening is that my nipples were expanding the width of every flange I tried – filling them up so full that pumping stopped working after a few minutes.
A lightbulb went off – it wasn’t that I had huge nipples, I just had elastic nipples! I just needed different tools.
Immediately I added the only pair of beaugen cushions on Amazon UK to my cart and ordered 2 bags of Pumpin Pal flanges from the USA. Once I got these items, my entire pumping journey changed.
My pumping started actually working. And my nipples, slowly but surely, began to heal. If pumping isn’t working for you, maybe you have the same issue.
If you think you might have elastic nipples, check out this video to see an example — it also shows the difference when you use beaugen cushions in your flange, which is what I ended up doing. Here’s another example of what elastic nipples look like before and during pumping — pumping pals help, too, because they are a different-shaped flange.
Stuff that can be delivered to Estonia
It took me many many hours of searching the internet to find the right tools for everything above. To save you some time, here are some links to sites that will deliver in or to Estonia — all new. I am adding links relating to the relevant list items above.
- Buy new Beaugen cushions from Amazon DE for 21 EUR that work for all pumps
- Or buy Pumpin Pals directly from the USA for $50 (they arrived fast) and these will replace your flanges — you just need to make sure you buy the right ones for the brand of pump you have
If you don’t mind used, however, because I just stopped pumping, we are selling all of our equipment.
Used items I’m selling for elastic nipples:
- My leftover beaugen cushions
- My pumpin pal flanges (the colorful ones in the picture)
- Regular, Medela flanges of all sizes (the clear ones aren’t specifically made for elastic nipples, but it does help if you have a wrong sized flange)
All the posts from our breastfeeding series so far (more to come!)
- Part 1: I pumped for 16+ months — I didn’t think I’d make it past 1 week
- Part 2: Before you commit, you’ll wanna know WHY you’re pumping
- Part 3: What I wish I knew about exclusive pumping from the start
- Part 4: Why pumping didn’t work for me at first — until I learned a secret
Sending all my strength to you moms right now,
Mallory — mom of Eloise
Eloise The Tiny Fighter 