Breast reliever
Category
Childcare objects
Date
circa 1870 - circa 1910
Materials
Glass and rubber
Measurements
120 mm (length; 50 mm (depth)
Order this imageCollection
Sudbury Hall Museum of Childhood, Derbyshire
NT 661855
Caption
An early breast pump or 'Breast Exhauster' made from glass and rubber and used to extract milk from a nursing mother's breasts. Manufactured between 1870 and 1910. Still popular with mothers today.
Summary
A 'Breast Exhauster' made from glass and rubber and used to extract milk from a nursing mother's breasts (circa 1870 to circa 1910). The funnel would be placed over the mother's nipple, the end squeezed, causing a vacuum so that the milk would be drawn out and collected inside the glass ball. It has a spherical rubber end which would have been squeezed, but has now become hard. On top of this is a glass funnel and protruding from it, a hollow glass ball. The funnel would be placed over the mother's nipple, the end squeezed, causing a vacuum so that the milk would be drawn out and collected inside the glass ball.
Marks and inscriptions
Base of the rubber end: '49'