Development of the Breast Pump with a Baby-like Motion

摘要

It is not common to use the breast pump in Japan though it is widely applied in the world especially for working women. The purpose of this research is to develop electric breast pump with a baby-like motion. The pump reproduces infant's compressive tongue's action on areola and infant's suction during breastfeeding. First, we took a X-ray video of an infant's tongue and measured suction pressure during breastfeeding. We analyzed displacement of tongue from the video. Next, we developed compressive action mechanism. This mechanism reproduce peristaltic tongue action during feeding.