05/07/2026
Twelve pumps.
About four hours.
A whole lot of volunteer labor, hospital grade peroxide wipes, replacement parts, vacuum testing, and teamwork. 💪🏼
Thanks to the Women’s Health Initiative grant through , over the last year, we’ve been able to refurbish hospital-grade breast pumps and get them back into the hands of families who need them — while keeping quality medical equipment out of landfills. ♻️
Every pump is cleaned, inspected, tested, and rebuilt with care. We check motor hours and suction strength, replace worn parts, and send each family home with a completely new personal pump kit including tubing, backflow protectors, duckbill valves, flanges, and bottles.
Cara Banks of and Becky from spent a chunk of the day keeping this project moving forward. At the Upstate Lactation Collective, community care looks like honoring lactation journeys, no matter what that looks like, giving back to the community through offering and showing up at community events and working together in collaboration to benefit the families we support.
Access to a quality breast pump shouldn’t depend on whether someone can afford a quality pump, or whether their insurance provider offers a pump that works well for maintaining supply. Access to a primary pump when you didn’t know what to choose before starting your lactation journey shouldn’t leave you stranded with a secondary wearable as your primary pump. There is so much we can do and support in our communities if we give from our own abundance, pass forward what we don’t need and repurpose items until they no longer serve us if for nothing more than for the sake of our dearest, Mother Earth. 🌎
We’ll have a request form available soon on our website for families needing a pump through the pump refurbishment program. 💛
