Shannon O'Donnell, President

When I got pregnant at the age of 35, friends told me that being a mom was a tough – although rewarding – job. I remember thinking, “I’m organized, I’m intelligent, I’m a quick study – it may be tough for them, but I’ll ace it, no problem.” Humility is one of the gifts of motherhood, and over the last nine years, I have had lots of it!

We originally planned a home birth. I had attended my niece’s home birth and realized I wanted the same. Enter “Plan B:” After 24 hours of labor and a solid hour of pushing, our baby wasn’t progressing. We ended up transferring to the hospital where Ryan was born. He had aspirated meconium and had to be taken away immediately. I was scared. For awhile, I didn’t even know if I’d had a boy or a girl (and at that point, I didn’t care – I just wanted my baby to be OK). Thankfully, he was just fine. The nurses brought him back to breastfeed, which he did quite easily.

Once we got home and he started nursing regularly, my nipples became unbelievably sore. I remember seeing him start moving his little mouth and I’d think, “Oh, please don’t be hungry again.” After a week of intense pain, I visited a lactation consultant to make sure he was latching on correctly. He was. And I was still in a lot of pain. I called one of my sister-in-laws regularly for advice and support. She’d had difficulties breastfeeding her son five months earlier. Her support was invaluable as she’d say, “Hang in there. I swear it gets better. I swear. Just hang in there.” It did get easier. It took eight weeks, nearly almost-daily calls to her, and another trip to the lactation consultant, but eventually, my nipples didn’t hurt anymore.

I had read a lot on “attachment parenting” and thought that it was a great fit for our family. I was committed to it at every level. I let Ryan nurse whenever he wanted (I now joke that he was a “snacker” as he would “snack” frequently). Ryan nursed day and night, ‘round the clock. I vacillated between acceptance and frustration, and I was flat-out exhausted. I had originally planned to work at home, but soon found that trying to work and to tend to a very high-maintenance baby wasn’t working. I found someone to watch him a couple days a week so I could work (and also to have a break!) That’s when I began pumping.

Pumping – another opportunity to embrace “humility,” except this one felt more like humiliation! I “hooked up” and immediately felt like a Jersey cow. Ugh. All I could hear was the loud, mechanical sound of the pump. I felt awkward and uncomfortable, even around my husband. I had a wonderful rocker/glider where I sat and nursed – I couldn’t wait to go pump in my glider and be comfortable. Wrong again. I had to sit straight up in a chair so that the milk would flow into the bottles. My back ached terribly. I got tired of holding the bottles; I figured out a way to jury-rig a hair tie on my nursing bra to pump hands-free. It wasn’t ideal because I always had to keep my bra on, but it worked. I pumped a lot – and was uncomfortable every time.

Three years later we had another baby. This time we had a very easy and absolutely wonderful homebirth. I began pumping for Sean a couple months later although by this time, I was a full-time mommy and didn’t need as much breast milk on hand. Regardless, my back still ached from pumping.

When Sean was about a year old, my neighbor, Jon Gillan, showed me a hands-free strap he’d designed for his wife who had exclusively pumped. I liked it and thought it would be helpful for other moms as well. Thinking I would just “help him out a little,” we visited a local breastfeeding store and showed the owner the strap. She said to us, “Not holding bottles is one thing, but if you really want moms to relax, you have to figure out a way for them not to have to lean forward.” Her comment hit home for me!

That was the beginning of our journey to create an angled flange to allow moms to sit back comfortably. Many lactation consultants and moms have asked us why the major pump companies didn’t create an angled flange long ago. Personally, I think it’s because the idea is simple, but it definitely wasn’t easy. It took us nine different versions to perfect an angled flange that worked. And I’m glad they didn’t create one -- five years later, I’m loving every minute of my job, helping bring our pumping accessories to moms around the world, and working with moms daily to support them in their efforts to provide breast milk for their babies.