I am truly amazed by this company!  I’ve been having some trouble with my pump for a few weeks now.  It only happens about once a day, the motor will either not turn on, or will end up stopping a few minutes in.  The only thing that gets it to come back on is if I hit it really hard, haha.  I sure do freak out when it happens and have been really worried that one of these times it just won’t come back on and then I don’t know what I’d do! 

So I finally called Medela last night to let them know about the problem.  I knew that the motor was under warranty for a year and since I bought my pump in January I was still covered.  I told the woman what was going on, told her when I bought the pump and gave her the information she needed.  They overnighted me a brand new pump!  It was delivered at 11:00 this morning!  I do have to send them something that shows the purchase date and send my old pump back but they emailed me a shipping label so it won’t cost a thing.  How wonderful is that!?!  It’s not everyday that a company will replace a $300 piece of equipment after 10 months of use! 

First, I want to say that whether you feed your baby breast milk or formula, that is your choice.  I do not judge and that is not what this post is about.  Every mother has the right to decide what is best for her and her baby.  But beyond it being a choice, sometimes our body makes the choice for us and I understand that too.  So whatever your reason is for doing what you do, it’s fine by me!

The issue that I’ve been having lately is with the fact that breast pumping doesn’t really seem to be “out there” or at least not exclusively pumping.  I find that I’m asked a lot of times if I breast feed or bottle feed.  Ok, well what if I bottle feed my baby but he gets breast milk?  Where is that option?  I also noticed, when I used to have the luxury of watching TLC, that on a lot of episodes of A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby if a mother couldn’t breast feed for whatever reason, she automatically went to formula.  I just wanted to scream, “There’s another option!” 

Throughout my pregnancy I would say that I was going to at least try to breast feed.  I knew it may be hard and may not work out, so I wasn’t going to be devastated if it didn’t.  I had also registered for a breast pump, thinking that I may be more comfortable with exclusively pumping if the actual breast feeding didn’t go so well.  I also wanted Jake to be able to feed our child and have that experience one on one with him.  Plus I knew I’d return to work and would need to at least pump there.  Things changed drastically when Carter was born premature.  Pumping was my only option for weeks, so it’s what I did, and it’s what I got used to doing.  I’m definitely not saying that it’s easy, but it works.  So when the time came to start trying to breast feed him, again, I wasn’t going to be devastated if it didn’t work out.  Sure, I’d love to have that closeness with him, but the important thing to me was that he was getting breast milk since it was super important for him to have as a preemie.  I soon realized that Carter was going to do so much better eating from a bottle because it was just easier for him.  So I gave up on breast feeding because I just wanted my baby to come HOME!  I didn’t want him to be held back because I was trying to get him to breast feed.  I remember telling the doctor and nurses and them making me feel like a horrible mother and like I was trying to “rush” my baby home.  But that’s another story.

Lately I’ve just been feeling like pumping isn’t really talked about or shown as much as breast feeding and formula feeding, so this third option sort of gets lost out there.  And if pumping is talked about, it’s usually an option for when the mother returns to work or is away from her baby.  Women aren’t taught about exclusively pumping, so many babies that may have been able to get breast milk don’t.  I was only given a piece of paper with instructions on how to pump.  But, thankfully, was proactive and looked up tons of information online.  And I’m a preemie mom!  You’d think I’d have a nurse over my shoulder making sure I was doing it right since it was my ONLY option at that point if I wanted him to have breast milk.  I had time to research since my baby was in the NICU and not with me.  But what about a brand new mom who has a full term baby?  She’s taught how to breast feed, but if that doesn’t work, is she taught how to pump?  She certainly doesn’t have time to look up all the information that I did to teach herself.  And if you don’t learn quickly then your supply will not get to where it needs to be.   

I’m so thankful to still be pumping past ten months.  I stopped devoting so much time to it once Carter came home, so my supply has slowly dropped since then.  But I’m still producing and still have a freezer stash.  I’m hoping to make it to the year mark without supplementing, but I’m not confident I’ll get there.  And that’s ok, it was my choice.  It was my decision to stop pumping so many times a day and spend that time with my baby boy.  It wasn’t due to lack of knowledge, I fully understood the consequences of pumping less and made an informed decision.  Formula is better today than it has ever been and it will feed my baby just as well as my breast milk feeds him.  But to all new moms and expectant mothers, if you have the desire to breast feed but for some reason aren’t able, there is a third option out there. 

More Information:
http://www.mother-2-mother.com/ExclusivePumping.htm