DESIGN OF BREAST STRAP FOR BREAST PUMP, BREAST PUMP AND METHOD OF OPERATION Russian patent published in 2020 - IPC A61M1/06 

FIELD: medical equipment.

SUBSTANCE: breast pump comprises breast strap structure, having a breast strap for accommodating the user's breast and a photoplethysmographic sensor for transmitting an input signal to the chest and receiving the corresponding signal in response. Said signal comprises variable and constant current components. Constant current component of said signal contains information relating to changes in volumetric absorption in breast indicating changes in milk flow in breast. Additionally, the breast pump comprises a pressure source in the air guide connection with a breast strap for generating an increased or decreased pressure in the breast strap for expressing breast milk and a control unit, configured to control a pressure source based on a constant current component of said signal, comprising information relating to changes in volumetric absorption in the chest, and a signal processing unit for analyzing variable and constant current components of said signal. Signal processing unit is configured to estimate constant component of current of said signal, containing information on change in volumetric absorption in chest, in particular, to increase fluid medium due to beginning of milk flow in breast, and to generate corresponding feedback signal to control functioning of pressure source by means of control unit. Disclosed is a method of operating a breast pump and a machine-readable medium containing a computer program comprising software code means for causing the computer to perform the steps of the method.

EFFECT: technical result consists in providing direct detection of the beginning of milk flow.

10 cl, 2 dwg