Are breastpumps needed by nursing moms?

I was talking to my wife about her breastfeeding journey and she brought up an interesting aspect about her experience which she recounted avidly - The breast pump. I remember those days so well, early morning, while I was trying to catch up on sleep after a rough night trying to put our daughter to sleep and my wife would wake up and promptly go to the bathroom to pump milk. Doing everything I could to not let the sleep escape me, I could hear the slow groaning of the pump doing its work and after 30-45 minutes my wife would emerge with filled bottles of breastmilk.

Details are foggy since it’s been 8 years, I asked her innocently, what her experience was like. Pat came the one-word response - “tough!”. Not expecting that I investigated further with a one-word question - “Why?”. Very plainly she said “because it’s painful, it’s not natural, breastfeeding shouldn’t hurt”. I understand what you might be thinking as a parent, that let’s just stick to breastfeeding but that is not the point of this exchange. We further discussed this and realised that my wife decided to pump because of multiple engagements in her life and she didn’t want to breastfeed anywhere and everywhere. Pumping was just convenient.

I spoke at length to Dr. Mugdha Joshi, the lactation consultant on breast pumping and she said that ideally, we don't recommend using a breast pump in the very early days, but it depends on the situation. For instance, if there's a latching issue and the baby is unable to latch, supplementation may be required, and the mother might need to pump milk. In such cases, she will need to pump every 2.5 to 3 hours to maintain the flow and produce enough for the baby.

Direct breastfeeding is always much easier than pumping, which is what my wife also said, it is comforting for both mother and child. Dr. Mugdha further added that there's no emotional attachment to the pump, and the mother may worry about how much milk is being produced. Additionally, she has to sterilize the pump after each use in the initial days.

She recounted one of her patients’ experiences: She exclusively breastfed but started involving her husband to provide one feed to the child in the morning. She would feed at 4 AM, then pump at 7 AM so that the husband could feed the baby. This allowed her to sleep until the 10 AM feed, helping her catch up on rest. The couple had started this routine after three months.

Dr. Mugdha also stated that while pumping has advantages, it's not suitable for everyone. Some mothers find it quite painful, and for others, pumping doesn't work well because the necessary hormones aren't released. It can be depressing if a mother spends 20 minutes pumping and only produces a small amount of milk, leading her to worry about not feeding her baby enough. This concern may negatively affect her overall feeding journey. Using a breast pump is not always the easiest solution, but having said that its effectiveness varies from mother to mother and we have to respect their situation for taking this decision, especially for a working mom.

She concluded by saying as to how fathers can help if the couple does decide to take up breast pumping:

1. Assisting with sterilization
2. Attaching pump parts
3. Giving the assembled pump to the mother
4. Feeding the baby with pumped milk while the mother can catch up on some rest

So

Are breastpumps needed by nursing moms?

As Dr. Mugdha said it depends on the situation. In my opinion, the couple have to decide on the next steps. For my wife and I it was a boon because we had a number of engagements, which required my wife to be physically out of the house and in these cases pumped milk helps because I can take over. Likewise, there are many moms out there who are perhaps working and feel the need to have pumped milk kept at home for dads or other family members to take on responsibility to feed the child, while she continues to build her career post pregnancy.