What is a Breast Pump Flange?

 What is a Breast Pump Flange?

The flange is the breast pump part that comes in contact with your body when placed onto the breast and nipple, forming a vacuum seal with the areola. It's shaped like a funnel. The flange draws your nipple into the tunnel of the pump where milk is extracted.
Whether the shield or flange size of your breast pump is right or not greatly affects your breast comfort and milk output. If you want to ensure the most amount of milk during your pumping and comfort during and after pumping, getting the right measuring size of your nipples is very crucial.  

Two Ways to Measure the Size of Your Nipples

First Method: Use the nipple ruler or the normal ruler to measure
Step 1: Stimulate your nipple to make it perk up.
Step 2: Hold the ruler at a perpendicular angle and line the 0 scale with your nipple base at the same horizontal line, also with the ruler edge meet your areola.
Step 3: Get the millimeters number between the nipple base and the nipple top, and the size measuring is done. 

Second Method: Use the nipple ruler with holes to measure

Step 1: Stimulate your nipple to make it perk up.
Step 2: Place your nipple into the holes one by one to find out which one you can comfortably fit your nipples into, in a way that your nipple can be out through the hole totally, also the ruler can touch the areola at the same time.
Step 3: Get the size of the holes, then the size measuring is done. 

What is your Momcozy Wearable Pump Size?

Step 1: Stimulate your nipple to make it perk up.
Step 2: Place your nipple into the holes one by one to find out which one you can comfortably fit your nipples into, in a way that your nipple can be out through the hole totally, also the ruler can touch the areola at the same time.
Step 3: Get the size of the holes, then the size measuring is done. 

TIPS:

1. Your left and right nipples may have different sizes, so please measure them both to get the exact size of them.
2. When you start pumping, your nipple size may change. So it's recommended that you choose the size of the flange which is 1-3 mm larger than your nipple's size, or you can measure the exact size when you finish pumping.

Will My Flange Size Change?
Possibly! Your breasts may change between the third trimester and after giving birth. Also, your breasts may change through your breast pumping journey, so it's important to regularly check your flange size.
If you measure your nipples before beginning to pump or before you have your baby, you will want to add 1-3 mm to the measurement you found for your nipple diameter for choosing the correct flange size. This will allow for the amount of swelling that occurs during pumping.