What breast pump should i buy?

[megglewell]

Greedy ds is only 5 days old but boobs are leaky - might as well start those stocks for the freezer! Hand pumps look laborious but electric ones pricey - any advice bf mums?

a handpump will be fine if you just want to express a bit here and there for freezer stocks.

bear in mind though, the more milk you take off the more you will make... if left to their own devices your breasts and milk supply will settle down naturally. so don't feel you have to express to deal with the leaky boobs!

anyway, i've had a couple of hand pumps and i got on best with the Avent one.
might be worth googling hand expressing though, cos that's free!

you don't really need an electric one unless you need to pump a lot

The Ameda Lactaline gets my vote. I bought an expensive Medela Swing when pg, but after DD was in SCBU and we were topping up a lot, I had to borrow a double pump and got an Ameda Lactaline. It was old and basic, but even just using one pump was more effective than my bloomin Medela!

thanks both, already have tommee tippee bottles so tt hand pump maybe..has anyone tried it?

that's one of the ones i had to start with,. but that was for ds1 a few years ago now, so i suspect they're different now.

it was ok i guess, but not as nice as the avent.

hopefully someone with more up to date experience will be able to tell you tho

I personally found Avent pumps better than the hospital pumps they had in SCBU when ds3 was prem. The Ameda Lactaline tends to get the thumbs up from MNers.

I used the Medela Swing with DD1 and am using the Medela Symphony (the rental one) and the Avent manual one with DD2.

I think the Avent manual one is the best of the lot, though I will get the plug attachment working (haven't had time to read the instructions since getting home) because you'll be heading for RSI without it. When the Medela isn't getting any more out of the boob, I can usually switch to the Avent and get another 20 to 40 mL out.

The two bottles and tubes that you need to buy to use with the rental Medela cost me nearly 70 quid, which is absolutely outrageous for what is probably 50p worth of plastic. Am in Australia, though, so the hospitals all seem to rent out the same pump and Medela have a total lock on the market.

By the way, I thought the hand pump would be laborious but it's really not too bad. I would recommend that if you're only doing one pump a day to build up a freezer supply, but it would be too much of a PITA if you were going to pump 6 or 10 times a day.

Don't forget to introduce a bottle of EBM before 6 weeks, though! I have lots of friends who can't get their babies to put anything in their mouths that's not a boob because they didn't start early enough.

I'm using the TT closer to nature electric pump, I've found it really effective. Not had any problems with it, easy to dismantle/reassemble, easy to clean - it comes with a really useful plastic microwave steriliser container, (wish I'd known before I bought my microwave sterilser which is still in the box!)

Can't compare it to a hand pump as I've never tried one.

Price comparison here:
www.babymooch.co.uk/items/tommee-tippee/closer-to-nature-electric-breast-pump/?gclid=CMvE7Kzy2acCFcod4QodISiC-Q

Agree with ninedragons re introducing the bottle early, my DD was happy with both until we went away for a month between 9 and 13 weeks where I EBF, now he doesn't want the bottle at all. Oh poo.

Tommee Tippee manual broke straight away not sure if that was my fault or the machine. Also now have the electic one which works but only if i take the inner silicone insert out.

Tk maxx do pumps usually cheap, and electrics. Ebay us also a good bet for a cheap elrctric one

Thanks everyone. I did a facebook poll too and the Advent hand pump is the definite favourite so i'm gonna get that one. Thanks for other advice too- defo gonna do the bottle before six weeks thing.

Second the Advent vote! Bought a Tomme Tippe one first and it really hurt, not much milk either. Might need to try a few different ones before you find the bets one for you - not the kind of thing you can try before you buy though! x

Personally I've only tried the Avent electric one. Either I'm getting something wrong or the suction on it is practically nonexistent. Had the opposite problem with the one at the hospital, which was so strong on the minimum setting that I screamed out in pain. Anyone think I should persevere?

Personally I've only tried the Avent electric one. Either I'm getting something wrong or the suction on it is practically nonexistent. Had the opposite problem with the one at the hospital, which was so strong on the minimum setting that I screamed out in pain. Anyone think I should persevere?