Send us your ideas!

Write to us and tell us what should be improved about the breast pump. Your ideas will be printed on large cards and used as inspiration at any future hackathons. They will also be placed in our open source repository and made available to the public. We also may use them to create data visualizations and posters.

Contribute your ideas by sending an email to
breastpump-organizers AT media.mit.edu

For example - Here's a Recent Idea:

I loved the story on medium.com about the breast pump hackathon! I am an engineer and a nursing (and pumping) mom, so this is near and dear to my heart. I have found myself wondering if it would be possible to make the flanges more closely resemble the size and shape of my baby's mouth. My baby's mouth is a lot smaller than the flange on the pump. Nursing is comfortable, but even the smallest of the "personalized fit" flanges that I can find are too big and leave me feeling sore afterwards. I've also wondered if it would be possible to add something to the flange that would mimic the flicking action of a nursing baby's tongue. And then there's another idea: what about making a breast pump that is small and portable and quiet enough to be worn and operated under clothing? (Small suction-cup style flanges that would fit inside a nursing bra and tubing that runs down to bottles in a fanny pack?) Not only could I pump at my cubicle desk or during a meeting, but I could also pump on a schedule closer to my child's feeding schedule (instead of retreating to a lactation room in between meetings) and be more in synch with him at the end of the day when I pick him up from daycare. And I bet a pump like that would be invaluable to teachers who don't have the luxury of moving classes around so they can go pump! This is just such a wonderful (and long overdue!) project! I would love to be involved somehow! For working/nursing/pumping moms everywhere, thank you.