hi my name is dr sarah bjorkman i am a board-certified ob gyn and first-time
mom um to a sweet little girl this week i want to share with you some of my favorite
pumping stuff pumping accessories or things that i found that make pumping breast milk
a little bit easier so i'm going to show you all of that right after this
all right welcome back a couple weeks ago i made a video all about how to use your spectra breast
pump um because i had no idea really what i was doing when it came to pumping when i first started
all this so to kind of complement that i want to share with you guys some of the things that i use
or picked up along the way that either make my life easier or convenient or i just really love
absolutely nothing is sponsored i paid for all of this with my own money i just want to share with
you what's worked for me so one of my favorite things that i use absolutely every single day
are these silicone flanges they are the lactack baby motion flange is what i they're called
they are um they come in a variety of sizes depending on your nipple size um so those are
really great i also there's an adapter that will adapt it to pretty much any kind of
bottle i use spectra bottles um and then my other favorite thing is this legendary
milk duckbill flange and it is my favorite because it has this little pull tab on it
so that when you have to put them on and off it is super easy to get it off when they don't have that
pull tab sometimes it gets stuck and you can't get it off and it's just so annoying so those are
really critical um so one of the next essential things is having a good pumping bra
now my favorite things are pump and nurse bras so there are bras that you know unsnap so you can
nurse the baby then there are also pumping bras that support the flange um so it's a pumping bra
and then there's bras that do both and those are my favorite mostly because of laziness and i
don't want to change bras to be able to pump and so um finding a good pump and nurse bra
is was one of my favorite things to figure out so this is a pump and nurse bra from
auden it's the target brand it's lovely it's comfy it's supportive your flanges sneak in under this
works great um the other one i wear most of the brand i wear most the time is called lupinette
it's got a little bit different design you kind of sneak the flange in on the side of it
works great the and i wear this probably every single day it's kind of flimsy so if you have
a like a larger chest it's not super supportive and it gets kind of stretched out after by the end
of the day in terms of supporting your flanges and keeping your flanges in a good position
so i know that kindred bravely makes a pump and nurse bra that's very popular um there's other
brands out there but when it comes to pumping if you are also direct breastfeeding your baby find
yourself one of those pumping nurse bras um there is also the other thing i found they make there's
a brand called roomina i think roomina that makes a pump and nurse camisole which is really nice
i find these to be nice if you're especially under my scrubs
if i'm wearing scrubs and i need to pump and i whip my scrub top up to hook my pumps on
like your belly is just out and you never know where you're at and so if you have a camisole on
underneath then your bottom half like your tummy is covered and you can
hook your pumps up and you're still pretty covered so i can link this to it's a roomina
pump and nurse camisole same concept as the pump and nurse bra it's just super convenient
the other thing i want you to think about when you're going back to work or you're going out
into the world and you're gonna have to pump and take your pump stuff with you is your
clothing this was not something i thought about the first day i went back to work and i wore this
black sheath dress um and a regular bra and i packed my pump bag and my pump stuff and
a pumping bra and not not good planning um so here i was in my dress and i it was time to pump and
i grabbed my stuff and i go into my office thank goodness i had an office and i have to like unzip
this sheath dress and i'm like trying to get behind me to unzip this dress i fold
the dress down realize i also do need to change out of this real bra to put on my different bra
so i'm like half naked in my office with this dress half off i'm changing bras i've got my
pumps on i was just like what am i doing it will never do this again so since that time i've looked
for fun brands of nursing clothes for example this shirt is in fact a nursing or a pumping
shirt check it out there are zippers so voila you just have easy easy access to your boobs you know
see all the way you can also go halfway with these zippers this is nursing queen clothing um
i really like it i think most of their stuff's really cute i have a sweatshirt
um they also make some sporty like sports clothes for working out this is a
stretchy and comfy and again has zippers in the front of it that go up and down super convenient
love wearing this in the summer when it's hot it's great um i know mlm brand makes like a really cute
black sheath dress that i want to get there's lots of different brands out there but you can look
up like nursing clothes these are just some of my favorite i think it makes your life so convenient
to just like have easy access to your boobs and you're still kind of covered and it's awesome
other things so storing breast milk when you are at work
um can be a total pain if you have a fridge in your office that's really cool if you have an easy
accessible fridge um that's also fine awesome label it so nobody uses it as creamer but um
i find sometimes i'm traveling or i'm out and about or i'm at the hospital and i don't have
a place where i can put stuff so i wanted to be able to keep breast milk cold i have been using
a cirrus chiller series chiller not exactly sure how to say it um it's basically like a
giant double inflated water bottle kind of thing but it keeps breast milk cold for up to 24 hours
and it does that by basically you can fill this outer portion up with a little bit of ice
and then it has this inner canister where you can put breast milk so this inner canister
there's a few things unscrew holds up to 12 ounces of breast milk so you can just fill this design
if you have this screwed on here you can put your breast milk in here you're good to go or
if you're someone who would pump you were going to pump more than 12 ounces when you were gone
you can fill this inner canister up and fill this outer portion up with breast milk which will hold
24 ounces so either way it's a great way to keep breast milk cold um when you're on the go and it
keeps it cold for up to 24 hours so this is just convenient if you're traveling if you're
someplace you don't know if you're going to have a refrigerator um it's been pretty reliable and
pretty convenient to have that the other thing to know is what we call the fridge hack so we think
hey breast milk is good in the fridge for at a minimum of three days right that's conservative
okay well so if i have a flange and a duck bill and a bottle that has a little bit of milk left
you know like residue after i dump it um to take home there's like a little bit of milk left in
this should i clean this whole thing with hot soap and water and then set it all out to dry
when you're at work hey if you have the setup to do that and the time and that's what makes
you the most comfortable absolutely go for it um for those who don't have the time or energy um
there's what's called the fridge hack so basically you pump you put your milk wherever you're storing
it for the day and then you put these bad boys drip some milk and all in a ziploc bag
and you put them in the refrigerator and there they sit you don't wash them you don't do anything
to them you just leave them in the fridge and the next time you have to pump you grab them out of
the fridge and you pop them on nips are a little cold but you're not having to clean and wash and
do this multiple times a day so you can do that for the whole day and then when you get home
you wash them up real good with hot soap and water some different bottle brushes
and you're all set that is the fridge hack last but not least thing that you need i guess is
you need some kind of bag to to like carry your pump around you'll find when you're a pumping mom
parent it you just feel like you're schlepping a whole bunch of stuff around all the time you're
like i've got my work bag i've got my pump bag i've got my cooler for my breast milk to come
home and um i this is literally an old lulu bag i have i have nothing fancy you like look on amazon
breast pumping bags there's all sorts of stuff you just got to make sure your pump will fit
you have your charger in there in case your pump dies during the day i always have a ziploc bag
because you just never know what you're gonna need to put in a ziploc bag i find when i'm
pumping whether it's to use flanges or whatever um i have a mask looks like i have my haka and
more ziplocks some deodorant so that's what's in my bag um and those are really my favorite things
so we will link them you can check it out hopefully you think through some of these
things before it's your first day back to figuring out how to pump you will figure out the system
that is best for you if you have any questions things that you love please please please leave
them in the comments below um pumping is hard enough so if you all have any tricks or things
that you love put them in the comments so we can check that out hope you have a great week
we're doctors but not your doctors anything we've said in this video
is for education or entertainment purposes only it is not medical advice
any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider