[ShelaVenna]

Explanation:

For those who don’t know, Brava was a medical device that could be used either to expand the breast tissue for fat grafting, or to grow breast tissue directly. As far as I know, the Brava Breast Enlargment System is no longer in production. It consisted of two domes with thick, squishy, adhesive silicone padding, and a “Smartbox” pump that senses the pressure inside the domes and automatically maintains low even pressure over long periods of time. Brava advertised about 1 cup size increase every 10 weeks and they recommended that users wear the system for 10-12 hours per day. I saw one of Brava’s own studies where the participants grew at about half the advertised rate, so I’m not sure what to believe. Either way, Brava theoretically should have been able to provide 3-5 cups growth in a year, but most people used the system for a much shorter amount of time.

I recently bought a real Brava Smartbox off Ebay for around $200. That may sound like a lot for a pump, but I haven’t found a decent substitute for the Smartbox other than some much more expensive “negative pressure wound therapy” pumps. The earliest version of the Brava System used a wound therapy pump made by Carilex. Years ago I tried sleep pumping with a regular hand pump, but if I used high pressure I’d wake up in a lot of pain after 2-3 hours, and if I used low pressure they’d fall off in an hour two. The Smartbox is great for maintaining  gentle low pressure without having to worry that the cups will fall off while I’m sleeping.

What I’m using:

1. A real Brava smartbox

2. Small contoured cups (any contoured cups will work, but they must be the correct size or they won’t maintain a seal at low pressure)

3. 2 layers of King Frost camper tape applied on the cup rims as padding.

4. A breastmilk pump (but a cheap hand pump would work just as well)

5. Lots of oil

My Program:

Step 1: I start by using a ton of oil. It’s absolutely necessary or the pump isn’t able to pull in enough of my breast tissue to create a seal. I also position the contoured cups so that the most concave part of the rim is lined up with my armpit. That makes them much more comfortable. I have to start off my session with somewhat high, but not painful, pressure to pull as much of my breast into the domes as possible or the cups won’t stay sealed when I switch to a lower pressure. I do this for less than 5 minutes. I choose to use a breastmilk pump for this step, but I could use a hand pump if I wanted too. The big advantage of the breastmilk pump is that it let’s me have both hands free to reposition and hold on to the domes while they fill up. Once I’ve pulled in enough breast tissue, I release the vacuum and very quickly switch to the smartbox. If I take too long to grab the smartbox the domes start to fall off and I have to start over from the beginning. As long as the smartbox is close enough to grab without shifting my upper body around too much, I can easily grab the smartbox before any of my breast tissue starts to escape from the cup.

Step 2: I just leave the smartbox running all night and the cups stay on and stay comfortable all night. I wore them for 11 hours last night with no issues.

The combination of the contoured cups, campers tape padding, and the smartbox is what makes sleep pumping possible for me. I really do think you need all three to make this method work. I tried sleep pumping years ago with just a hand pump and regular domes and the longest time I kept them on was 4 hours and it was really hard on my skin and armpit nerves. Most nights I didn’t even make it past 2 hours, so I gave up on the idea. So far, this new method seems much easier and more comfortable.

Stats:

Weight: 131

Underbust: 30”

Bust: 31.5”

Bra Size 34AA

[ShelaVenna]

I sleep pumped for 10 hours again last night with no problems. The only thing that worries me is that my right breast swells more than left. I’m only on my third day and the difference between the the two is still increasing. I hope they mostly even out soon, or I’m not sure how I’ll deal with the issue. Hopefully the only thing that matters is the amount of negative pressure applied to each breast and not the amount of swelling. My breasts are naturally even in size but my right breast has always swollen more than the left, even years ago when I used to pump 1-3 hours per day.

I plan to update this page weekly with my “normal” and swollen bust measurements, the aberage number of hours I managed to pump per night, and any other important stats. Might also post a bra pic and keep posting pics every month or so, in the same bra, until I outgrow it. That could make it easier to see any growth.

[ShelaVenna]

My back is killing me. I can’t tolerate  sleeping on my back. I had to stop a sleep pumping session even though my breasts are doing just fine. I almost can’t believe that my back is the problem. I normally don’t have back issues, but back-sleeping has always been uncomfortable for me. It wasn’t painful, just uncomfortable, so I thought it was something I could get used to over time if I kept forcing myself to do it. Nope. Right now I can’t stand up straight. I’m walking around hunched over like an old lady. This is bad enough that I can’t afford to let it happen again. I don’t know how I can prevent this in the future. I already have a knee support pillow and that wasn’t enough. I may need to sleep on a huge wedge AND use the knee pillow. If that doesn’t work, I’m screwed. I refuse to waste time on short duration pumping and there’s no way I could pump for 8-12 hours during the day time.

[ShelaVenna]

I measured my knee bolster and it’s only 4” tall and a little too soft. It was probably only giving me 3 inches of lift or less. No wonder it wasn’t helping me much. The higher the knees are lifted the more stress is taken off the lower back. I just bought a leg roll, aka cylinder bolster, that’s 8” thick and extra firm. I might buy a basic style cervical pillow too. I’m holding off on buying a back wedge for now. I woke up in so much pain this morning, I almost impulse purchased a whole system of pillows. It took me about 3 hours after waking before I could stand with normal posture.

[ShelaVenna]

Quick update. I didn’t miss a night. The pillows have worked great for the last 2 nights. In 2 days I’ll have been doing this for one week, then I’ll post new measurements. I don’t expect to have grown by then, but hopefully I’ll have a little more swelling already. I think I’m still swelling only a little over an inch.

[ShelaVenna]

I just thought of a couple more random things that might be worth mentioning.

The Brava pump runs off of either a charge or batteries. The batteries are just meant to be a backup if you run out of charge during a session. I’m using batteries exclusively because I never bought a charger for my smartbox. Two AA batteries only last about 3 days, but bulk AA batteries are pretty inexpensive, so I’m not sure if buying a $70-$80 charger off Ebay is worth it. Does anyone know if using batteries instead of a charger might be damaging the pump in any way?

The other thing I wanted to mention is that the pump needs filters that have to be replaced weekly. Almost all of the listings for pumps that I’ve seen don’t bother to mention that filters are necessary. Weirdly the Brava pump is designed to use syringe filters. Look for 25mm “double luer lock syringe filters”. I’ve been asking around trying to figure out the right pore size to use, but haven’t gotten a firm answer. “Pore size” refers to the size of the “holes” in the filtration material inside of the filter. Smaller pores filter out smaller particles. The filter is meant to block out minerals from your sweat that can build up inside the pump and destroy the motor. I just bought the smallest pore size that I could buy for a reasonable price off ebay. I’m crossing my fingers that the pores are actually small enough to do what I need them to do. If anyone know what pore size is best for capturing sweat minerals, please let me know. Or maybe someone can just find out what the pore size of the original Brava filters was. 

[ShelaVenna]

Weekly Update:

Bust right after pumping: 32”

Bust 13 hours later: 32” (0.5” increase from starting size)

The measuring tape tells me I kept all my swelling from this morning, but my eyes are telling me something different. I don’t think I’ve grown half an inch in only one week, and I also don’t think that I swelled up to only 32” this morning. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to hold the measuring tape exactly the same way every time. Not to mention that I might be holding a little more air in my lungs, or hunching, or winging my shoulder blades during one measurement and not another. Take my measurements with a grain of salt. They won’t ever be perfectly accurate, but hopefully they’ll still show an obvious growth trend over time, so I’ll keep taking them weekly.

Bra Pic for Future Comparison:

I plant to keep taking pics in this same bra monthly until I outgrow it. It’s a 34A. I typically wear a 34A size in a less structured padded bra like this one, but in most underwire or unpadded bras I have to wear a 34AA, or there’s tons of gapping in the center. I think I MIGHT technically be a 34A based on my actual breast volume, but because I have no fullness in the top and center of my chest, I have to wear a AA most of the time so, I’ll keep calling my breasts AA for now. The reason I wore a padded bra in the pic is because I’m not trying to show my actual size in the bra pics. I’m just trying to track my progress towards outgrowing this bra, or at least filling out the center.

This is slightly off topic, but I couldn’t help mentioning it. The dark splotches in the center of my chest are about 75% percent shadows from my weirdly-shaped bony sternum, and 25% hyperpigmentation. I have no idea why I have hyperpigmentation in the exact same places where the shadows fall. It’s very strange, but I do. It almost looks like I purposely contoured in the hollows of my bony sternum to make it look even bonier, so I’m going to try to start treating the splotches, especially since I’m worried that the strain of pumping will make them even worse. I need to start doing a little bit of extra skincare on my decollete anyway, because I don’t think my skin is bouncing back after pumping as well as it did when I was younger. I will probably start using a glycolic/salicylic acid blend that I already own, along with vitamin C, retinol, and also some hydroquinone for the splotches.

[ShelaVenna]

Today was the end of the second week. I measured 32.5” this morning and then measured 33” 17 hours later, after the swelling should have gone down. Obviously that makes no sense, so my measuring method must be inconsistent. The 32.5” measurement is a 0.5” increase from last week, so I hope that’s real growth and not just a bad measurement. When I took the second, bigger measurement I was very careful to make sure that the measuring tape was going straight across my back,  and was level with my nipples. I think 33” is the more accurate measurement of the two, so I’ll consider that my new baseline.

I averaged 9.5” hours of pumping per night so far.

[ShelaVenna]

I thought I should mention a random change I’ve noticed. When I first started this program, my breasts would always become cold after a few minutes of pumping and they would still be cold when I took the domes off in the morning, especially the nipples. They weren’t so cold that I was concerned for my health, but it was very noticeable. That also used to happen years ago when I pumped at higher pressures. After a few days of sleep pumping they have started to feel much warmer while pumping, and now after two weeks, they seem to be at a normal body temperature when I wake up in the morning. I always assumed that the cold feeling I got during pumping was due to poor circulation in the breast . I know high pressure pumping can damage circulation in the breast, but Brava claimed that low pressure pumping improves blood flow to the breasts by increasing the number of blood vessels. The original purpose of the Brava was to increase the number of blood vessels to support a fat graft so that fewer fat cells would die from lack of blood flow. I think that the constant low negative pressure really is improving the blood flow to my breasts, and as the blood flow improves so is the swelling. Back when I only did higher pressure pumping, the poor blood flow never improved, my breasts were always cold while pumping, and I never got much swelling no matter what method I tried. I don’t know if the change in temperature is really that important or not, but for now I consider it a very good sign.

[ShelaVenna]

Today was the end of week 3. I averaged 9 hours pumping per night. I think my original measurement was wrong and I was actually at 32”, not 31.5”. I didn’t take a measurement while swollen this time, like I did last week. These are my measurements 8 hours after pumping.

Starting measurements:

Bust: 32”

Underbust: 30”

Week 3 measurement:

Bust: 33”

Underbust: 30”

An inch in 3 weeks is pretty damn good. I doubt I’ll keep growing at this pace. It would be crazy if I did. There’s not much of a visible difference yet. I don’t think I’ll really feel like I’m progressing, until I go up a cup size.

I’m a little worried that the skin on my chest has been looking odd lately. There’s no stretch marks or sores or anything like that. It just looks more “textured” than usual, especially right after pumping. It’s difficult to describe, and it would be pretty hard to take a clear picture of it. I haven’t been as faithful to my skincare regimen as I should have been. I’ve been trying to apply an aha/bha cream along with retinol, vitamin C, and hydroquinone everyday. Half the time I forget to do it. Anyone over 30 should strongly consider doing the same if they plan on pumping. I’m in my 30’s btw.