The 411 on Prenatal Flange Sizing
Prepping for baby’s arrival is an important part of your pregnancy experience, and preparing to breastfeed sets you up for a successful experience. For 80% of parents, their breastfeeding journey will include using a breast pump to express their milk at least occasionally. For some parents, they will exclusively use a breast pump to express their milk. And despite the fact that most pumps come with flanges, the vast majority of people need a size other than what comes standard with their pump. It’s only normal that parents in the midst of the nesting phase want to learn if they can get set up for successful pumping BEFORE their baby arrives.
But, can you figure out what size flanges you need to use before your baby arrives?
Yes… but sizing may change postpartum. We can get a rough starting size to allow you to pump effectively, safely, and comfortably postpartum by applying the general sizing changes observed in nipples at the end of pregnancy and postpartum with good accuracy.
Can all pumps be sized prenatally?
Most pumps on the market use a standard flange sizing range, so with the exception of the Willow Pump, we can get a pretty good starting point towards the end of your pregnancy.
What about the Willow Pump?
The Willow Pump requires precise sizing and does not perform well with swollen nipples (which are normal immediately postpartum due to hormones and birth interventions. It’s typically 10-14 days postpartum when we can get that exact sizing for this pump, which is perfect given we recommend avoiding it all together in those early days. When I do a prenatal flange sizing, I give an estimated Willow sizing with the disclaimer that it is the sizing I think is least likely to do any significant damage, and that I will resize at 10-14 days postpartum to get that exact sizing figured out.
What about the other types of wearable pumps like the Elvie, Imani, or Momcozy?
These tend to stay within the standard flange sizing range and immediately postpartum. The standard sizing works well with these pumps.
So, when can you measure prenatally for flanges?
The ideal window for prenatal sizing is 36-38 weeks - with the ability to measure as early as 32-34 weeks in complicated situations with ongoing monitoring.
What has to be considered when sizing for flanges prenatally?
The biggest thing to consider is that nipple sizes change quite a bit from the time you get pregnant until you are about 6 weeks postpartum when changes in sizing slow, but they do continue to change over time. At the start of your pregnancy, your nipples will typically be the smallest they will be until weaning entirely. Hormones shift through the pregnancy causing your nipples to grow several millimeters on average. Typically, by the end of the third trimester, nipples are at or about the size they will be postpartum, with the exception of some temporary swelling when baby arrives. By six weeks postpartum, those hormones have settled out and the nipple size becomes more stable.
Then, we have to consider how much general swelling the parent is experiencing, any known pregnancy complications, and the known birth plans. This allows us to make an educated sizing estimate for flanges at the end of the pregnancy. This is actually much more complicated than postpartum flange sizing given how many factors there are to consider.
Why worry about prenatal flange sizing at all if it is likely to change in the first few weeks?
Pumping is hard work, and I’ve never met anyone who was happy to spend that time to pump with ineffective or uncomfortable pump flanges. Efficient pumping is especially vital in the first few weeks when the milk supply is most vulnerable to poor stimulation or ineffective milk removal.
Prenatal flange sizing allows us to make sure that from the first time a parents needs to pump, they have the right flange size to bypass the ineffective headaches and problems all together.
When do you need to follow up postpartum?
When I do a prenatal flange sizing, I typically measure 3 different times:
About 36 weeks pregnant
10-14 days postpartum
And finally, 6 weeks postpartum
That way, the flanges stay optimally sized and my clients can pump comfortably and effectively the entire time whenever they need to pump to support their goals.
Can I just have the hospital LC size me postpartum?
Sure… if you want to end up sized based on swollen, enlarged nipples, by someone who may or may not have any expertise with pump flange fitting. I genuinely don’t recommend this as a lot of what I spend time fixing are the disastrous results of this common practice. Rarely will this end in the successful pumping experience you were looking for.
This is doubly true if you are trying to be sized for the Willow. Don’t have the hospital size you immediately postpartum even if they claim to have the expertise to manage this pump.
What if I do not plan on pumping in the early weeks?
This certainly reduces the need to be sized prenatally, but sizing prenatally does provide a bit of security to your breastfeeding journey in the event things don’t go as planned. Breast pumps are the go-to tool if we have a baby who can’t or won’t latch effectively, and having an effective breast pump ready to go with properly sized flanges helps us protect the breastfeeding journey.
Stores don’t stock the flange sizes that 70% of people will need to pump properly, which means, waiting until you need the pump to size the flanges can cost us precious days if you have to wait on shipping. This is a choice each parent has to make for themselves.
So, if you are ready to put that nesting urge to good use and set yourself up for success with pumping, book a prenatal flange sizing consultation today.
