Are manual pumps really that rubbish?

[HeadFairy]

Today's my first day back at work and I thought I'd be ok not pumping, in fact I don't even know where my old pump is, but I'm starting to get pretty engorged and I've still got another 7 hours at work plus an hour's drive to get home before I can feed dd. I was going to nip over the road to get a manual pump from Boots, but will I be wasting my money? I used to pump loads with ds but that was with my super duper double Medela pump, I never had much luck with my crummy Avent single pump.

I use the Avent one and to be honest, I haven't had a problem with it. I express 4 fl oz in about 5 mins very easily with it. I think I recall using the Medela in hospital, that was superfast at expressing!

Good luck with the pump if you choose to buy it. :)

Ihad a manual and actually found it more efficient, I had a Tomy Tippee thing - dirt cheap and came with a sterilizer

lovechoc, maybe the Avent one I've got is a bit old and decrepit, it was my sisters first and her oldest dd is 8 now. I think I'll have to pop over to boots in my tea break, but any recommendations in the meatime will be gratefully received

I like my medela manual pump, can get 3-4 oz in about 15 mins. Not tried any others though.

The medela hand pump was recommended to me by the breast feeding counsellors. It was very good.
I had the Avent one already but she said they were crap and to go and buy medela one

I preferred the Avent. And once got over a pint out over the course of a day.

I have a medela hand pump and it's very good - not tried any others. Whichever you buy will probably be better than a very old one, as some of the components (certainly in Medela pumps) can degrade/become loose (valves, membranes) and that reduces the suction.

Mine was less then twenty quid I think. Good luck!

Hmmm Boots only had their own one or the Tommee Tippee, I bought the TT manual one, has anyone tried it? is it any good? If it's rubbish I'll take it back tomorrow and order the Medela one from Amazon tomorrow...

I had the tt one and found it easy to use and pretty good generally. Good luck with it!

MadamDeathstare, it's only really to pump once a day at work when I'm feeling a bit engorged, I did rent when ds was born and I expressed every day, but it's just not worth it for the amount of pumping I'm going to do now. DD is 9 months now and I just need a cheapy one to help me out at work.

i have the tommee tippee manual one and a boots electric one - and i prefer the manual one by far. i'm sure you'll find it fine.

ooh excellent woodlands... thanks for that, I'm not due to get home until 11.30pm and I last fed dd at 7am so I'm going to be bursting if I don't pump!

I had the TT manual one and found it absolutely fine.

I've also got a Medela Swing (electric) which I bought when DS was only a few days old which I loved and will use again with DC2. I would always advise someone new to expressing to get an electric, because getting the hang of doing it manually when BFing is perhaps a struggle at the beginning would be a nightmare!

Yeah, I wouldn't use a manual pump for regular pumping, too much hand ache... when I pumped for ds I hired a hospital grade double pump and it was amazing!

i like my manual, never tried electric. my friend can get out more with her manual than her electric!

we use the tommee tippee closer to nature pump.

I have a TT closer to nature handpump. Love it, I can mimic ds sucking pattern and get 8oz in 15 mins on a good day.

manual is fine for relieving engorgment, i used little avent one for odd KIT day at work. might not be great for maintaining supply.

MumNWLondon, I'll only be missing the mid afternoon feed (which is just a nibble really) and bedtime feed, I'm going to keep a dream feed going to keep the supply going (plus I still do the odd night feed) and it's only three days a week (and not consequtive days either) so hopefully my supply should be ok after 9 months... fingers crossed!