There is now a way to measure how much breast milk a baby has consumed — without expressing.
In what’s been described as a world first, Momsense is a breastfeeding meter that records swallowing sounds from a sensor placed on a baby’s cheek.
Combined with an app, it can give an estimate of a baby’s milk intake.
“It’s a great alternative to expressing,” says celebrity midwife Cath Curtin.
The maternity nurse, known as midwife Cath, says it is “incredibly soothing” to hear the sounds and could help build confidence for new mothers, especially in the early days.
"When women are just breastfeeding, you need the baby to gain weight and have lots of wet nappies," she explains.
"That is easy to say, but with this, [mothers] can hear it. They can hear the milk going down and then they can see the volume the baby has taken in on the app."
The midwife, who is a breastfeeding advocate, says every first-time mother is concerned about not having enough milk.
"Pumping is unnatural, unless you have a sick or premature baby," The First Six Weeks author explains.
"For a normal healthy baby, the baby is best on the breast because that is what the brain wants. The brain wants to look at the baby with the stimulation on the nipple and then it lets down more milk."
New mother Amanda Berger started using Momsense with her newborn son Noah, after weeks of pumping.
"The first 10 weeks I swear I was just pumping... It was pretty stressful and tiring and I don’t know even know how accurate it is to pump," she said.
Top Comments
Women need to stop being control freaks and just trust their bodies. This is ridiculous and just another thing for women to obsess about....when did breastfeeding become so complicated??
I don't understand Midwife Cath, in her book she says for the partner to give a bottle of formula to the baby at about 10pm but then here she is saying pumping is 'unnatural'? Isn't formula unnatural as well? And bottle feeding? Not trying to start a war here - I use both breast and bottle, formula and expressed milk; my baby will take her food anyway she can get it - but it seems contradictory to me.
I do understand the appeal of this device, when I first started feeding I wished my boobs were see through so I could see how much the baby was drinking! I did the 'expressing milk and seeing how much she took in' experiment so I had an idea. But I do think it would feed your neurosis, I can imagine I would get obsessive if I was using that thing.