The breast pump is a clever human invention

By pumping, I mean using one of those neat little electric motors which create a rhythmic and variable vacuum, and which have plastic flanges attached to them so you can apply the vacuum to your breasts. When this oscillating vacuum is applied to your nipples and areolas, the pressure changes stimulate your let-down.

• Generally, you'll use the setting of short, fast suction first, then with letdowns you'll adjust to the slower, longer draws.

• The vacuum draws up the milk released from your breasts through valves into containers.

The motorised breast pump is an important human invention, a small and elegant machine designed to help support and stabilise the biological system of you and your breastfeeding baby. These days, families in advanced economies rarely think about breastfeeding without also thinking about pumping, which makes sense given the importance of machines as extensions of human competence in 21st century lives.

However, it's also common to find yourself pumping when what you really need is effective help for the underlying problems which make direct breastfeeding unworkable for you and your baby.

Some women will never pump a great deal of breast milk even though their supply is perfectly adequate to meet their baby's needs. This is just part of the spectrum of normal variability of breastfeeding women's bodies. It's important to remember that the amount you pump doesn't necessarily tell you whether or not you have a good supply of breast milk. You can find more about what doesn't help you decide if you have enough milk here.

When does pumping help?

1. You have a prematurely born baby

If your baby is born prematurely, pumping is likely to be a vital way of setting up your breasts for breastfeeding down the track, depending on the age and developmental capacity of your little premmie to suck. The section of Possums Breastfeeding & Lactation for women with prematurely born infants is still under development.

2. You have breastfeeding problems

You might have struck breastfeeding problems and find yourself pumping for the sake of your precious little baby, so that he still receives the amazing bioactive tissue of your breastmilk and so that you can maintain your milk supply. It's my hope that Possums Breastfeeding & Lactation might help you turn things around so that you can commence or resume direct breastfeeding (though this is not possible for all women).

Of course, you and your baby may have been so distressed by earlier attempts to directly breastfeed that you don't want to go back to that again. You may have found that exclusively pumping works well enough for you and your family, and if you were sitting in my consulting room telling me this, I would completely understand and support your decision.

However, a baby's breastfeeding reflexes remain powerful for months after the birth, even if he has been exclusively using the bottle. It's not true that he will have learnt dysfunctional sucking patterns at the bottle - sucking is contextual. Babies suck differently, depending upon what they are sucking. The transition from bottle use to direct breastfeeding does have challenges, but these challenges aren't a result of dysfunctional suck patterns (despite what you might hear).

You can find out about transitioning from the bottle to the breast here.

3. You are separated from your baby

Sometimes after you've given birth, you and your baby are separated for a time. Depending on your situation, you might move from hand expression of your breast milk to pumping, in order to stimulate your milk supply. This is a way of protecting your future breastfeeding relationship with your baby. I hope you have lots of physical and emotional support if you find yourself doing this in these early days.

If you're doing it on your own, as so many women need to do, remember to practice all the self-compassion strategies you can think of. It can also help to imagine your little person as a loving grown-up person, calling to you and speaking with you from the future, quietly thanking you for all that you did so bravely and with so little support when they were fresh into the world.

• You can find out about hand expression of milk here.

• You can find out how to help your breasts make plenty of milk once you've given birth here.

• You can find out about self-compassion starting here.

You might be pumping because you've needed to return to paid work, but want your baby to continue to receive your milk. Expressing your milk is a wonderful gift you're giving baby, if you can do it. I hope your workplace has a physical place that allows you to feel nurtured and supported as you deliver on this commitment of pumping your milk for your little one.

And again, I completely get it if you decide you can no longer continue to pump after you go back to your paid job, and you give your baby formula. The last thing we need as parents is pressure from, or the judgement of, any health professional, or judgement from any other parent or person - though we definitely do need our health systems, and also our workplaces, to become much more effective in their practical support of lactating women.

4. You want some expressed breast milk either in storage or for your partner to feed to your baby

Sometimes you might pump to build up a store of breast milk in the freezer, so that another loving person can feed your baby when necessary, even though you're not returning to paid work right now. In this case, we need to be sure that you're not driving up your supply too much, creating a lot more milk than your baby needs each day. Habitually making more milk than your baby needs physiologically puts you at risk of mastitis or your baby at risk of a lactose overload.

• You can find out about mastitis here.

• You can find out about lactose overload in babies here.

Other women like to have some expressed breast milk available for their child's other loving parent to feed to their baby. You can find out about this (and also potential downsides to be aware of) here.

Recommended resources

How to pump your breast milk as easily and effectively as possible: non-wearable and wearable pumps, with a word about breast compression

What timings work best if you're pumping your breast milk?

How to protect your nipples and breasts from injury during pumping

When might pumping get in the way of direct breastfeeding your baby?

Things to know as you make decisions about pumping your milk: occupational fatigue, mastitis, microbiome and nutrient changes, odour, milk crust

Pumping breast milk for your baby: Dr Pamela Douglas in conversation with New York City breastfeeding counsellor Emma McCabe 2020 (transcript)

Jenny wants to transition her baby (born at 31 weeks gestation and whose corrected age is now one week) away from formujla supplementation to exclusive breastfeeding

Why triple feeding andthe top-up concept can get in the way of successful breastfeeding

How to transition from formula use to exclusively or predominantly direct breastfeeding

You can find out about expressing and storing your breast milk on the Australian Breastfeeding Association's website, here.

Selected references

Gridneva Z, Warden AH, McEachran JL, Perrella SL, Lai CT, Geddes DT. Maternal and infant characteristics and pumping profiles of women that predominantly pump milk for their infants. Nutrients. 2025;17:366.

Rosenbaum K, McAlister B. An integrative review of exclusive breast milk expression. Journal of MIdwifery and Women's Health. 2024:doi:10.1111/jmwh.13713.