Strong Suction Pumps and Nipple Damage

Put the Willow, Baby Buddha, and Bella Baby Pumps away if your nipples are damaged!

These three pumps are super popular breast pumps, and they can be fantastic for a pumping parent in the right circumstances.  If your nipples are damaged or incredibly painful, these pumps rarely allow for timely healing.  They have incredibly strong suction and can further traumatize the already damaged tissue.

The Willow Pump is perhaps the worst pump of the strong suction pumps to use on damaged nipples.  The Willow pump uses a strong constant suction on your nipples, and requires the most precise sizing of the available pumps on the market today to properly express your milk without nipple trauma.  If we are going to have to work on healing your nipples to get a proper size, using the improper willow pump size on traumatized nipples is not only going to delay this it may entirely prevent it.  The Willow pump may offer unrivaled convenience, but it is 100% the wrong pump to use on damaged nipples 100% of the time.

You would not take a skinned knee and apply strong suction and moisture before allowing it to dry out multiple times a day and then wonder why your knee wouldn’t heal would you?  Nipples are not superhuman body parts with any type of special ability to withstand repeated trauma, they need TLC and a high quality care plan when they are damaged.  The hard part is that in order to protect your milk supply we need to keep emptying your breasts during the healing process.

The best practice here is to put the pumps that are highly likely to continuously damage your nipples up for a bit.  Try maintaining your milk supply with hand expression, nursing more frequently with a good latch if you are still latching your baby, using a hand pump where you have better control over the suction, or using a more gentle pump. 

I tend to recommend the Spectra s1 or s2 when dealing with badly damaged nipples, the vibration feature can allow for quicker emptying of the breast at a lower suction to help prevent further damage of the nipple tissue.  The Limerick PJs comfort is also a great pump to use when dealing with damaged nipples. Limerick pumps use a soft collapsible flange made of silicone that does not require precise sizing to protect the damaged nipples.  Limerick pumps are multi-user pumps, so while they may be expensive they are able to be picked up second hand on resale markets or ebay safely, or they may be rented from a lactation consultant.

For my local lactation clients I do offer a rental option for the Limerick PJ’s comfort.  Contact me today for more information.

View Related Articles…