Breast Pumps

Looking after your breast pump equipment

Clean and well-functioning breast milk equipment is essential if you are to adequately express your breasts and provide milk safely for your baby. When at home or in hospital you must prepare your equipment before using it.

The first step is to wash your hands with warm soapy water before touching the equipment. The electric pump and hand converter should be visibly clean; if you find any dirt or old milk on the equipment it should be wiped off with a detergent cloth. Do not put the equipment into water.

Cleaning your equipment

Traditionally all mothers were advised that feeding equipment should be ‘sterilised’ before a feed is made up. Sterilisation means to get rid of all germs that might be on the surfaces of equipment. We now know that routine sterilisation processes do not do this but rather the equipment is disinfected, meaning most but not all of the germs are killed.  

We all have germs living on our skin. When babies’ breast feed they take these germs into their mouths; this is normal and in general does not cause any harm. When you are expressing your milk some of these germs will go into the milk; this is expected. The special properties in breast milk reduce the amount of germs that can multiply in the milk and therefore we do not believe that it is necessary to ‘sterilise’ the equipment used for collecting breast milk after each use. Instead, equipment that is properly washed and stored is adequately disinfected to reduce the number of harmful germs your baby might be exposed to. It is prudent to ‘sterilise’ the parts of the expressing set that come into contact with your milk once a week. 

In hospital your collecting set is provided sterile and ready to use. After the first use, separate the parts that will come into contact with your milk from the rest of the equipment:

• Contact with milk – membrane pot (with and without the orange rod), pump body/shell and lip valve
• No contact with milk – the silicone tube, tube connector, adaptor tube cover and lever – ask your midwife to show you these.

Follow the instructions given below to keep your collecting set clean.

In the neonatal unit or postnatal ward

• When cleaning your collecting system, use the bowl provided in the humolactor room or the one provided by your midwife.
• Having used the pump, wash with hot soapy water parts that have come in contact with your milk, paying particular attention to areas that are difficult to get into e.g. the ridges in the neck of the funnel. You may find a bottle brush will help to get into difficult areas.
• Rinse the parts in cold running water and dry with a paper towel.
• Place the parts on a dry paper towel by your baby’s cot /incubator to air-dry further. If you are washing your pack on the postnatal ward, leave the clean parts on a paper towel on your
  locker top.
• After about one hour check that there is no moisture on the parts. If they appear completely dry, re-assemble the collecting system and store it in a clean plastic box or freezer type plastic bag.

At home

• When cleaning your collecting system we recommend that it is done separately to any other dishes/pots you are washing.
• Having used the pump, wash with hot soapy water parts that have come in contact with your milk, paying particular attention to areas that are difficult to get into e.g. the ridges in the neck of the funnel. You may find a bottle brush will help to get into difficult areas
• Rinse the parts in cold running water and dry with a paper towel or clean dishtowel.
• Place the parts on a dry paper towel / clean dishtowel and leave them on the kitchen counter to air-dry further.
• After about one hour check that there is no moisture on the parts. If they appear completely dry, re-assemble the collecting system and store it in a clean plastic box or freezer-type plastic bag.