Background: Breastfeeding is the best source of food for the newborn. In a situation wherein it is not possible to breastfeed a baby, it may be necessary to express milk from the mother's breast using a breast pump. To achieve lactation success before a baby's suckling can ensure the effective extraction of milk, breast pumps must meet specific biomechanical requirements. However, the parameters of the vacuum stimuli by which milk is expressed remain nonoptimized.
Subjects and methods: Forty-nine lactating women of 21-30 years of age who volunteered to be included in this study were examined. Women had been lactating and breastfeeding normally for 6-7 days. A new method was developed to compare the amount of milk ejected by vacuum pulses of different amplitudes or duration.
Results: It was found that for most nursing women, the vacuum stimuli with amplitude of about 190 mm Hg, duration of 0.7 second, and frequency of 1 impulse/s are optimal for removing milk from the breast of a woman.
Conclusions: Optimization of the amplitude and duration of the vacuum stimuli increased the efficacy of the breast pump.
Keywords: amplitude and duration vacuum stimuli; breast pump; lactation; optimization.