Manual breast pump
View Patent ↗A manually actuated breast pump is provided. The breast pump has a breast cup, pump mechanism and a container. The components of the breast pump are easily assembled and disassembled to facilitate use, cleaning, manufacture and transport. The breast pump can apply a negative pressure, a positive pressure or both to a user's breast. The breast pump provides fluid isolation between the pressure source and the expressed milk.
1. A manually operated breast pump, comprising:
a flexible insert for engaging a breast of a user, said flexible insert having a funnel-type shape;
a housing sealingly engaging said flexible insert;
a holder sealingly engaging said housing and sealingly engaging said flexible insert, providing an air volume in fluid isolation from breast milk passing through said flexible insert; and
a pump mechanism sealingly engaging said holder, said pump mechanism having a handle extending in an upward direction from said holder, and a vacuum chamber, said vacuum chamber being in fluid communication with the air volume of said holder, said handle having a grip above a pivot point and a lower end below a pivot point,
wherein said handle is adapted to move by exerting a pressure on said grip to move said grip toward said housing and the breast of the user to create a negative pressure communicated to said flexible insert and thereby on the user's breast and said handle is adapted to move said grip away from said housing to create a positive pressure communicated to said flexible insert and thereby on the user's breast,
wherein said pump mechanism has a holder attachment having an inner volume that connects to said holder, an actuator having a planar portion and a connection portion perpendicular to said planar portion that attaches to said handle, and a chamber diaphragm that surrounds said connection portion of said actuator and connects to said holder attachment between said handle and said holder attachment defining a pump volume within said inner volume, wherein said inner volume is in fluid communication with said air volume and in fluid isolation from breast milk passing through said flexible insert, and wherein when said handle moves by exerting a pressure on said grip to move said grip toward said housing, said lower end exerts a pulling pressure in a direction opposite movement of said grip on said actuator to move said actuator within said inner volume with said lower end generating said negative pressure that is communicated to said flexible insert.
2. The manual breast pump of claim 1 , further comprising a container that sealingly engages said holder and receives the expressed breast milk.