Mum-of-two is urging women with babies to express milk by HAND… and this is the reason why
Francie Webb is encouraging other mums to ditch the pumping equipment and instead feed their tots manually
A WOMAN has started a campaign to try to encourage other breastfeeding mums to express milk manually using their hands instead of a pump.
Francie Webb, 35, decided to quit her job as a teacher to start up her '' campaign, which aims to help others 'dump the pump' and start expressing breast milk by hand.
The mum-of-two told : "I first started hand expressing milk full-time when my child was under one and it worked so much better than using a pump.
"And then six months later it occurred to me that I could teach other people, because being a mum is stressful and I thought I can't be the only one who does this because it makes my life easier."
As well as being easier, a study by Stanford Medical found that "manual techniques, such as hands-on compression's of the breast, extracted more milk and boosted long-term milk production."
And apparently, the milk is richer in nutrients and fat because it can be drawn from deeper in the breast.
Francie added: "You don't have to trek the pump pieces everywhere you go which is a plus.
"I've had mums with strict pumping schedules say they can't go out on a date night with their husbands, but if they hand express they can just take a bottle in their purse, so it gives a lot more freedom."
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As part of her campaign, Francie now has her own blog and uploads online tutorials and holds face to face classes to teach women how to express properly.
"There are plenty of mothering experts who tell women to hand express, but there are very few women taught how to do it," explains Francie.
"New mothers can become dependent on electric pumps and often one of the first things women think is 'what pump should I get?'
"Hand expressing gives more options to get the milk out, more freedom and more power."
And it seems a lot of mums are eager to learn from Francie as she's actually struggling to deal with the international requests.
To help with the global demands, New York-based Francie has enlisted a mum in the UK and one in Vienna to manage the requests. She plans to recruit more women as 'contractors' too.
"Next month I'm training 10 women to work as contractors for The Milkin Mama and they will be teachers, spreading the mission with workshops and private sessions, and going to breastfeeding groups and mum support groups," she said.