Systems, devices and methods for assessing milk volume expressed from a breast
Systems and methods for assessing milk volume changes within a breast are described. Also described are systems and methods for assessing volume changes in the stomach of an infant.
1. A measurement system for assessing milk volume expressed from a breast, comprising:
a measurement device associated with the breast and configured to facilitate measuring changes in breast volume or milk production or consumption; and
a controller wirelessly communicating with the measurement device, the controller configured to calculate one or more of changes in the breast volume and milk expressed from the breast;
wherein a firmness of the breast is assessed to quantify and correlate the firmness of the breast to milk production or expression.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement device includes:
a distal mount portion;
a proximal mount portion; and
a flexible intermediate portion that bridges the proximal and distal portions.
3. The system of claim 1 , the measurement device further including a sensor configured to sense compression and expansion of an intermediate portion, and to provide information concerning a change in breast size.
4. The system of claim 1 , the measurement device further comprising an antenna electrically connected to a circuit, the antenna configured to communicate wireless with an external device or to upload data to a network or cloud based server.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is configured to be calibrated by recording signals from a sensor at different stages of breast feeding and considering resultant changes in the volume of the breast.
6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system measures a displacement metric associated with the breast by a stress/strain measurement.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement device is designed to expand and extend along two main axes.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more sensors are provided to detect one or more of heart rate, temperature, respiration or motion to facilitate other health management of a user.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is integrated with a breast pump and is in communication with a phone or cloud to transmit and coordinate information concerning milk production.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system can be powered by one or more of body heat or motion.
11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a camera or other image collecting device and an app developed for a smartphone or other electronic device, the camera configured to sense an image of a pattern of a change and correlate the image of the pattern of the change using any predetermined baseline measurements, and render a volume change that correlates to the changes in the pattern.