Medela Symphony

I've rented this pump twice now - once with DD1 (for 14 months of pumping, 8 of them exclusive pumping) and once, so far, for 6 months with DD2 (daily pumping to build freezer store of milk and also to give breastmilk to toddler DD1). This is probably the best pump out there if you're likely to be using it on an at-least daily basis - smaller electric pumps have motors that burn out after a few months (this happened to my smaller medela) and hand-pumping resulted in repetetive strain injury to my wrist after a couple of weeks). This is quiet, efficient, rather gentle on the nipple and has a useful two-phase expression setting to simulate baby's sucking for let-down. I really think that this pump is one that genuinely could save a mother's milk supply in the event that her baby could not feed for however long. Only once have I had any problems (one of the lengths of plastic tubing broke off) and Medela sent out new parts by first class post - very polite and friendly service. It's far cheaper than buying a month's worth of formula, and enables optimal nutrition for one's baby: what's not to like? I got to the stage where I could pump twice (morning and night), getting 12 ounces each time and taking about 20 minutes) so it wasn't as time-consuming as I think people imagine pumping to be.

This pump isn't one to buy, but one to rent, which you can do through the NCT or LLL, or through www.expressyourselfmums.co.uk. If you are going to pump for a while - for a preemie, a baby with poor suck, or if you have low supply (as I do), it is totally worth renting this or the equivalent as you get a lot more milk in a shorter time than any other pumping system. Double pumping is a huge time saver and much better for building supply.

I tried several hospital-grade pumps and this one worked best for me. The mechanism is quite quiet, and being able to switch between the let down and extraction phases is very helpful. I also found it gentler on the nipples than the pump-in-style and lactaline. It's also reasonably portable - much more so than the equivalent ameda pump. Overall, definitely recommended if you're having to pump a lot (and you have my every sympathy!)

I was given this breast pump by the hospital since I could not breastfeed my daughter directly for several months. The pump has a similar action to the Medela Swing. It is a lot bigger but the advantage is that it is actually two pumps in one. Therefore, both breasts cam be expressed at the same time which saves a lot of time. Without this pump I probably would have had to give up breast feeding during my daughter's hospital stay. It is a very expensive pump but since it was provided by the hospital for my specific circumstances this was not a problem. A very useful pump to keep in mind for very specific circumstances.