the Willow 3.0 Bra Breast Pump is designed to help nursing parents get on with their lives while pumping, and its latest new feature adds an extra level of convenience: a companion app for the Apple Watch. The app allows you to switch modes, control the suction, and track your sessions without having to fiddle with the pump or pick up your phone. That doesn’t sound particularly earth-shattering, but in case you didn’t know, I’ll let you in on a little secret: Expressing milk is horrible, and anything that makes it a little less horrible is a godsend.
Throughout much of recent history, using a breast pump meant stopping everything you were doing every few hours to sit tethered to a bowling ball-sized contraption plugged into an electrical outlet. But in recent years, in-bra pumps like the Willow have started to appear: small, self-contained, battery-powered, and designed for hands-free use. They’re especially useful if you want to, oh, I don’t know, do literally anything outside of your house for more than three hours without running back home and pumping.
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In-bra pumps are also useful in many more situations, so you can get things done around the house or if your workplace doesn’t have a private room to pump. They’re designed for comfort, and having wrist controls extends that comfort just a little bit more.
Unfortunately, the technology isn’t exactly accessible to most people. Willow 3.0 starts at $549, and while US health insurers are required to cover the cost of breast pumps for new parents, they will generally only cover the full cost of a basic model. Not to mention, an Apple Watch starts at $249, which is about the same as a three month supply of diapers. If that kind of expense is out of your budget, then you’re probably stuck next to an outlet for your pumping sessions after all.
