Side Effects of Breast Pumps
1. Reduced Milk Supply
The first and foremost setback of the breast pumps is the reduced milk supply. The mechanism of breast pumping is much different than the sucking of a newborn. Newborns latching on to their mothers and sucking the breast milk generates more milk compared to the pumping techniques.
2. Damaged Breast and Nipple Tissues
If used without any proper directions, the breast milk pumps can be very painful. Continuous usage of such practice may ultimately lead to damaged breast and nipple tissues. Besides, manual pumping can be very difficult as well as tiresome.
3. Painful Engorgement
This is an important side effect of using an electric breast pump. They pump too much of the mother’s milk and thus the breasts tend to secrete large scale of milk. This milk is then stored for later use causing the breasts to swell. This is called Breast Engorgement and it is very painful for a mother.
4. Expensive setup
The electric breast pump setup is considerably expensive and many mothers could not afford such a costly measure for storing their milk. Even if it is not possible for a mother to use milk pumps, she can go for the traditional method of breastfeeding her child.
Side Effects for Babies
1. Depleted Nutrients in Breast Milk
When the baby is directly breastfed by the mother, it gets all the vital nutrients from its mother. But by storing, refrigerating and reheating the breast milk can cause the nutrients to deplete. This affects the baby’s health.
2. Confused Babies
While keep on switching between the direct feeding and pump feeding can confuse the baby. The sucking mechanism differs in both cases. This can ultimately cause sore nipples for the mother since the baby is sucking hard on the bottle and continues to do so while breastfeeding as well.
3. Danger of Contamination
The bottles and storage containment of the breast milk need to be sterilized daily for a clean and healthy feeding. But even after a strenuous cleaning of the apparatus, there are hard-to-reach spots in the containment units that can cause bacteria and fungus to accumulate. Such organisms find pristine breast milk as an ideal environment to breed. This would lead to the child’s illness.
4. Teeth Decays
There is no such problem of tooth decay in breastfeeding practice. But there is a probability of baby’s teeth getting decayed by the constant contact of teeth with the bottle. Ultimately, the teeth should be capped or replaced with the help of a dentist.
Breast milk pumps are really the nicest device for a full-time working mother. It does give them the necessary rest and peace while their babies are feeding the breast milk from a bottle. But there are certain aspects which should be fulfilled only by a mother. Increased usage of such pumping activities really dents their relationship with their newborns.
A mother should breastfeed her child as much as possible to improve her bonding with the child. The mother should talk to a lactation consultant before using the breast pump. The decision of choosing the pump should be taken after analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of its usage.
