That’s why the MIT Media Lab is holding a “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck Hackathon” September 20 and 21 in Cambridge, where they’re bringing together 60 to 80 engineers, designers, parents, public health researchers, and lactation consultants to bring innovation to maternal health and make “the breast pump not suck.” 
 
 MIT says on its website that they’re holding the challenge because improving breast pump technology can save lives and money: 
 
 Breast pumping is an experience many women hate, yet it saves the lives of premature babies and permits working women to continue a nursing relationship with their baby. In May, the five researchers hosted a mini hackathon, where they began throwing around ideas for how to improve the breast pump, but they decided to turn it into a larger hackathon to develop the ideas further. 150 people that will self-organize into teams of 5-10 people per team. You must register in order to attend and unfortunately all of our space is now full. She has no kids yet, but hopes that by the time she does there is a better breast pump! People are skeeved out by breastmilk. No doubt inspired by the ubiquitous public service announcements about how healthy breastfeeding is for mother and baby, 77 percent of new mothers do it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2013 Breastfeeding Report Card.
– It might not be the first thing that comes to mind after the word "hackathon," but organizers of an upcoming one at MIT say the world is long overdue for a better breast pump. Engineers, designers, moms, and health experts will gather later this month for reasons spelled out by organizers at their website: "The motor is loud. There are too many parts. They are hard to clean. You can’t lay down and pump. There is no good space to pump. It’s hard to keep track of what you pump. Your colleagues think pumping is weird. People are skeeved out by breastmilk. People are embarrassed by breasts." The Sept. 20-21 hackathon is an offshoot of a smaller brainstorming session in May that was in itself prompted by this article in the New York Times lamenting the baffling lack of progress on breast pumps. By and large, they remain complicated and sometimes painful. It's about time, writes Melissa Malamut at Boston Magazine. "Let’s not forget that you just pushed a baby out of your body. You’d think that would be the hardest part of being a new mom. But no, then you also have to deal with the annoyances of pumping." Business Insider calls it "one of the biggest issues for working mothers," and NBC News notes that half of all new mothers breastfeed for six months, meaning that most require pumps for at least parts of that stretch. The public health benefits of breastfeeding are "huge," say organizers, making the current pump designs all the more frustrating. Hackathon participants will split into teams and pitch prototypes at the end of the session. (A new issue: Moms who breastfeed while using medical marijuana.)