How to Do a Breast Pump Fit Check

Breast pumps usually come with a couple different choices in flange size. However, breasts and nipples don’t just come in a couple sizes. Pumping shouldn’t be painful and while it won’t be 100% as effective as a real baby, it should do an efficient and decent job of extracting milk! Here’s how to do a fit check of your breast pump.

First, make sure you get your breast pump when you are in your third trimester of pregnancy. You don’t want to be caught off guard after giving birth and you’re stressed out in the middle of the night, desperately needing to pump, but you’ve never even taken it out of the box.

Get your pump, sanitize the pieces, plug it in and make sure everything works, and check the fit. By the way, don’t overthink buying your breast pump. A standard Medela or Spectra works great. Hands free pumps are nice for work, but do best on smaller breasts.

First, lubricate the tube and opening. You want the skin of your breast to easily glide when pumping and not have any discomfort from that hard plastic. You also want to get a good suction grip against your skin and not have it slip off easily.

Just like you would want your whole nipple and areola to go in the baby’s mouth, you want the pump to work the same way for maximum effectiveness in letdown stimulation and milk extraction. The nipple should reach halfway into the tube.

If your nipple doesn’t even go into the tube, you need to size up. You might even have to order a particular size online.

If your nipple goes too far into the tube, you need to size down.

Pumping shouldn’t be painful so make sure everything is working right, lubricated, and the correct fit! This will be something you will be glad to have checked off ahead of time to avoid additional stress after baby has arrived.