Systems and methods for pumping milk from a breast, wherein the milk is expressed from the breast under suction and milk is expulsed from the pumping mechanism to a collection container under positive pressure. In one approach, the breast pump assembly includes a breast adapter and a receptacle configured to cup the breast adapter, and the breast adapter is removable from the receptacle.

The combination of a breast pump shield, with its ring, applied to the flange lower end of the shield, and the ring being C shaped in cross-section, having an upper flange, a lower flange, both integrally structured with a base wall. The physiological stimulator integrally formed with the lower flange of the sealing ring extends inwardly and upwardly within the shield, and therein functions as a means to place pressure upon the breast of the mother to help induce and stimulate the flow of breast milk during usage of the associated breast pump.

A method for operating a breastpump unit for expression of human breastmilk and various breast shields for use in this method allow a maximum pumping performance and a minimum pumping duration per pumping session. The breast shield has an inner chamber for receiving a nipple of the breast and also at least one outer chamber which at least partially surrounds the nipple. The inner chamber is subjected to a constant pressure and the at least one outer chamber is subjected to a pulsating pressure.

A breast pump includes a main body and a breast milk suctioning shield. The main body has an accommodation space. The breast milk suctioning shield is assembled in the accommodation space and detachably connected to the main body. A front end of the breast milk suctioning shield has a breast shielding portion, and a nipple passage extends from a rear end of a center portion of the breast shielding portion. One or more deformable members are assembled with an annular connection portion between the breast shielding portion and the nipple passage, and the deformable member is controlled to be inflated or deflated by a first air pump.

A breast pump includes a main body, a breast milk suctioning shield, and one or more air pumps. The breast milk suctioning shield is assembled in an accommodation space of the main body and detachably connected to the main body. A front end of the breast milk suctioning shield has a breast shielding portion, and a nipple passage extends from a rear end of a center portion of the breast shielding portion. One or more deformable members and a non-deformable supporting member are assembled with an annular connection portion located between the breast shielding portion and the nipple passage. The air pump has an intake port and an exhaust port. The intake port is controlled by a first valve controller to suction the nipple passage and generate a negative pressure, and the exhaust port is controlled by a second valve controller to inflate or deflate the deformable member.

A breast milk collecting method by stimulating the mammary gland of a breastfeeder to eject breast milk includes providing an audio-playing device to generate an auditory stimulation, providing a video-playing device to generate a visual stimulation, and providing a breast pump to generate a tactile stimulation and collect the breast milk. In this method, the breast pump is placed on a breast of the breastfeeder, and one or more deformable members of the breast bump is inflated or deflated alternately to touch and press the breast so as to mimic a breastfeeding condition to generate the tactile stimulation, so that the pituitary gland of the breastfeeder can be directly stimulated by the multiple sensory stimulations to secret prolatine or oxytocin, thereby allowing the mammary gland of the breastfeeder to eject the breast milk to be collected by the breast pump and treated collectively.

A breast shield for expressing human breast milk. The breast shield includes an outer housing and a flexible inner liner within the outer housing. In use, with the breast shield applied to a breast, the inner liner is in contact with the surface of both the areola and nipple of the breast. The breast shield further includes an outer chamber between the outer housing and the inner liner and an inner chamber within the inner liner. In use, the inner and outer chambers, are subjectable to differential pressure and the differential pressure is operable to cause the inner liner to exert a massaging effect against the surface of both the areola and nipple of a breast.

A breast pump device and associated methods for extracting breast milk are disclosed. A pump head comprises an external shell with an elastic membrane disposed and bonded therein to define at least one hermetically sealed chamber. Manipulation of the elastic membrane, for example, by adjusting suction or pressure in the sealed chamber or within an interior volume defined by the elastic membrane permits radial mechanical compression (positive pressure) to be applied to a nipple positioned in the pump head to simulate compression of the nipple by the infant's tongue and simultaneously permits axial hydraulic or pneumatic suction (negative pressure) to be applied to the nipple to simulate the infant's minimum intra-oral vacuum. The breast pump device of the present invention can generate these simultaneous compressions and suctions with a single vacuum source, which may be an electric pump or a hand-operated mechanical pump.

A breast pump device (1) comprises an expression kit (2), a vacuum unit (3), and a conduit (5) for establishing an air path between an air outlet (27) of the expression kit (2) and an air inlet (35) of the vacuum unit (3). The expression kit (2) is equipped with a barrier portion (26) for preventing milk leakage from the expression kit (2) towards the hose (5) and the vacuum unit (3). In case some droplets of milk enter the barrier portion (26) and/or drawn through the barrier portion (26) by an ongoing pumping action, aspects of the behavior of the motor (32) for driving the pump (31) are influenced, and the insight that this happens is used for terminating operation of the motor (32) as soon as a too large deviation of one or more operational characteristics of the motor (32) with respect to a reference is found.

A hydraulic pumping system in accordance with embodiments comprises a breast interface operably coupled to an actuatable assembly by means of an actuatable assembly interface. The breast interface comprises a distal membrane coupled to a housing to form a fluid reservoir therebetween. The actuatable assembly interface comprises a proximal membrane. The distal and proximal membranes are fluidly coupled via a tube carrying a driving fluid. The actuatable assembly interface is configured to removably couple to the actuatable assembly, in order to operably couple the actuatable assembly to the breast interface. The actuatable assembly interface comprises a fluid shut off mechanism to reversibly shut off fluid communication between the breast interface and the actuatable assembly interface when the actuatable assembly interface is decoupled from the actuatable assembly.