Are breastpumps available for use for nurses?

Gompers, BSN, RN · May 17, 2006

A dumb question for you. :) I'm thinking about selling my breastpump because I ended up staying home with DD for a year and didn't need to pump when I came back to work. I hope to eventually have another child and was wondering if the hospitals have hospital grade pumps set up for employees? I've heard of this before (you provide your own tubing etc), but I'm wondering if that is typical or not. I'd hate to sell my pump and then end up needing to buy one again later on. But if I can use one for free at work in the future (I'm a student), I want to sell it while it's still worth something! Thanks!

Many NICUs and some OB units will have breast pumps available for staff to use if patients are not using them at that time. HOWEVER, finding the time to leave your floor, pump, and rehydrate might be a problem for you in the future. I work in the NICU so it's easy for our nurses to take a quick pumping break. But even though we offer our pumps to all of the hospital staff, we find it's just our nurses using the pumps. The complaint is that the other staff members never seem to have time to leave their units to come by us to pump, especially since it's first-come-first-serve and we try to let the patients' moms go first as a courtesy.

RN and Mommy · May 17, 2006

Where I work, the hospital will rent you a hospital grade breast pump for as long as you are breast feeding if you are an employee and there is a room up on the OB floor where you are able to go and comfortably pump.

prmenrs, RN · May 17, 2006

I think this depends on if your hospital is pro-breastfeeding. Check w/your OB floor. It takes committment on the part of the hospital and nursing administration to support breastfeeding as a concept, not just on post-partum, but amongst their female workers.

Our Nurse Manager actually got the Auxilliary to fund a special room, nicely furnished, refrigerator, pump, etc., for employees to use. Moms w/children on pediatrics were able to use this room as well.

SmilingBluEyes · May 17, 2006

We have them, but they are for patient AND employee use. IF they are all in patient rooms, then the employees have to hope they are not in use at the time they wish to use them, which can be a problem, especially if they need them at a very set time.

I say, hang on to your breast pump til you are sure you are done having babies. I had mine and there were lots of times I was glad I did when ours were all in patient rooms. When I had time to pump, it was very limited and I did not have a lot of time to waste, nor the desire to get over-full due to pumping too late.

ladybugsea · May 17, 2006

Thanks for your responses. I'm actually hoping to be able to stay home for a year when I have another baby. I've found I don't need to pump to keep nursing a toddler. But in case I do need to work... Most of the hospitals in my area are pro-bf, although not 'baby friendly' yet. I'm a new ADN student, but I hope to work in L&D with the midwives, RNs and LCs that inspired me when I had DD. :)

GooeyRN, ADN, BSN, CNA, LPN, RN · May 17, 2006

Keep your pump. Neither of the hospitals I worked at had a pump available for employee's. Your pump will also be nice to have if you want to go out for an evening/afternoon some time. You can pump a bottle/sippy cup ahead of time (the milk is good for quite a while) so baby has something while you are out, and you wont have to use formula. And if you come home and baby has just taken the bottle and you are full, you can pump to comfort, and freeze that milk for future use.

Even if you work at a hospital that has a pump available, will someone else be using it on your break times? If you didn't pump you would loose your supply and have a fussy baby. Better to be prepared and have your own!

hospitalstaph · May 17, 2006

A dumb question for you. :) I'm thinking about selling my breastpump because I ended up staying home with DD for a year and didn't need to pump when I came back to work. I hope to eventually have another child and was wondering if the hospitals have hospital grade pumps set up for employees? I've heard of this before (you provide your own tubing etc), but I'm wondering if that is typical or not. I'd hate to sell my pump and then end up needing to buy one again later on. But if I can use one for free at work in the future (I'm a student), I want to sell it while it's still worth something! Thanks!

I know that this does not answer your question.....but, unless you own a hospital grade pump you should not sell it. Pump N Style's, Isis, etc are not multiple user pumps, they are considered single user medical equipment. Now, I'm not saying that you can't find these for sale ALL over Ebay, because you certainly can, but it's not a good idea.

I agree with the above posters, keep it and use the one at the hospital too. You just never know when that pump could come in handy at home:)

Good luck to you,

T

judyblueeyes · May 17, 2006

My hospital has pumps and private pumping rooms all over. I guess it depends on the place you work. Best Wishes!

SmilingBluEyes · May 18, 2006

I just have a hard time understanding anyone wanting more babies selling a pump......why do that if you have any possibility of using it again? I mean, you may need it in another place but work. And unless you are guaranteed use of a breastpump at work everytime you want to pump, why risk not having one?

J'sGirl82 · May 20, 2006

I know that this does not answer your question.....but, unless you own a hospital grade pump you should not sell it. Pump N Style's, Isis, etc are not multiple user pumps, they are considered single user medical equipment. Now, I'm not saying that you can't find these for sale ALL over Ebay, because you certainly can, but it's not a good idea.
I agree with the above posters, keep it and use the one at the hospital too. You just never know when that pump could come in handy at home:)
Good luck to you,
T

If the tubing and horns are a seperate entity and milk does NOT pass through any machinery ( assuming you are HIV free, and not one drop of blood has came from your nipple because of them being cracked), it is safe for multiple users (per FDA-supposidly, although they do not regulate the resale of pumps)-the only 2 that come to mind, however, are the Ameda and Whisper Wear pump.

Irreguardless to the fact, I prefer to use my own pump, but the hospital grade ones here, are for employees and patients, we have to duck and bob into an empty room, though

hospitalstaph · May 20, 2006

If the tubing and horns are a seperate entity and milk does NOT pass through any machinery ( assuming you are HIV free, and not one drop of blood has came from your nipple because of them being cracked), it is safe for multiple users (per FDA-supposidly, although they do not regulate the resale of pumps)-the only 2 that come to mind, however, are the Ameda and Whisper Wear pump.
Irreguardless to the fact, I prefer to use my own pump, but the hospital grade ones here, are for employees and patients, we have to duck and bob into an empty room, though

The FDA does not regulate the resale of these pumps, but they do consider them a single user medical device. Below is an article by Nancy Mohrbacher about this:

Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC

www.artofbreastfeeding.com

From: LEAVEN, Vol. 40 No. 3, June-July 2004, pp. 54-55.

What new mother wouldn’t like to save money on a breast pump? That’s why we are often asked: “Do you have used breast pumps available?” Some mothers have friends or relatives offering to lend them a used pump. Is a used pump a good option? Open Systems vs. Closed Systems

Some mothers mistakenly assume that because rental pumps are safely shared by mothers that it is also safe to share purchase pumps. This is not true. Rental pumps and purchase pumps are designed differently. The collection kits (the bottles and tubing that attach to the pump) used with the rental pumps are designed so that the milk never touches the working parts of the pump that are shared with other mothers. This is considered a “closed system.”

Most purchase pumps, for example Medela’s Pump In Styles, DoubleEase, and MiniElectric, are “open systems.” This means that the pump motor is “open” to contact with the mother’s milk particles. In a Pump In Style, for example, the breastshield (the part held against the breast) is open to the tubing that attaches to the back of the shield, which is also open to the diaphragm on the pump motor that creates the suction and release. This means that an invisible mist of milk particles can travel from the shield into the tubing and back onto the pump diaphragm. The diaphragm cannot be removed or sterilized, so it cannot be cleaned well enough between mothers to insure safety. When there are milk particles on the pump diaphragm, even with a brand new set of bottles, tubing and breastshields, with every suction and release another mother’s milk particles will be blown into your milk. Even if milk particles are not visible, they can still be there. (One sure sign is mold growing in the tubing, which sometimes happens with normal use.) Health and Hygiene Issues

Does it matter if your baby receives another mother’s milk particles? Potentially, yes. Although your milk is without a doubt the best possible food for your baby, it is currently recommended that any donor milk a baby receives from a milk bank or from another mother be pasteurized to kill viruses. Your baby has already been safely exposed to the viruses in your system during pregnancy, so there is no risk. But if another mother carries a virus in her system that you do not, it can be passed to your baby via the other mother’s milk and your baby may become seriously ill.

A mother can have a virus in her milk without even knowing that she is a carrier. Some of the potentially dangerous viruses that can be transmitted through human milk include cytomegalovirus (CMV) and HIV (AIDS). Most mothers with CMV, for example, are unaware that they are a carrier. The FDA says:

There are certain risks presented by breast pumps that are reused by different mothers if they are not properly cleaned and sterilized. These risks include the transmission of infectious diseases...FDA believes that the proper cleaning and sterilization of breast pumps requires the removal of any fluid that has entered the pumping mechanism itself. If proper sterilization of the breast pump cannot be achieved, FDA recommends that it not be used by different mothers.

Legal and Liability Issues

These issues are serious enough that if a mother contacts Medela and tries to order a new set of bottles and tubing for a used Pump In Style, Medela will refuse to sell it to her. Medela does not want to be legally responsible if a baby should become seriously ill. On its Web site Medela says:

It is not advisable to use a previously owned breast pump. Breast pumps are single-user products, or personal care items, much like a toothbrush, and are registered with the FDA as single user items. For safety, breast pumps should never be shared, resold, or lent among mothers. Medela strongly discourages mothers from re-using or re-selling previously owned breast pump equipment....

What If a Borrowed Pump Breaks?

If in spite of the above health/hygiene/liability issues you decide to borrow a used pump, there are other issues to consider. Recently several mothers have come to us in the following unenviable situation: within weeks or months (in one case, days) of borrowing a pump, the used pump stopped working. It had reached the end of its natural life.

Because these mothers were good people, they felt they had to replace the pump so they could return it to the original owner as promised. This meant they ended up paying the full purchase price for a new pump but could not even keep it for their next baby. They had to return it to the original owner. As it turned out, it would have been much cheaper for them to rent or buy than to borrow.

When considering borrowing a used pump, also keep in mind that the best of these purchase pumps have a one-year warranty. And no matter how new the pump, its warranty is automatically voided if it is used by more than one person.

Also, even if the borrowed pump doesn’t fail while you have it, you have shortened the life of another mother’s pump. To calculate how much, subtract the length of time you have used it. How would you feel (and what would you do) if you returned the pump to its original owner in working order, but when she has her next baby, it breaks a week later? It’s important to be clear about these issues up front. What looks like a great deal could end up costing you more in the end than buying a new breast pump. © Nancy Mohrbacher, 2004

T