Which pump would you recommend?

[Kayzr]

I am just starting to look at things to buy for when baby arrives in June and I would like a breast pump. Preferably an electric one as I had a manual Avent one with DS2 and really didn't like it.

I am not planning on expressing until baby is 2-3 months old but I am having a look now.

I have heard good things about the Medela Swing pump but then read on here that it wasn't too good. Something to do with it being an open system.

Which ones are good and which should I avoid?

Thanks

I used Medula mini electric. Cheaper than the swing. I thought it was good but noisy. Would by it again,not that I need to as done two babies and still works.

might be worth a trip to local breast feeding group. midwife there could probably tell you which most people prefer.

I have an Ameda Lactaline which is a closed system. I did some scary reading and would definitely advise against an open system.

There aren't any breast feeding groups near here. There was one about 8 miles away but they have stopped now.

Hi Kayzr, I'd definitely wait until after the birth to buy a pump until you know the score with how your baby's feeding. My boy had a type I tongue tie which made feeding very difficult, he couldn't latch on/milk me properly so I was advised to express between (painful!) feeds. I'd made the mistake of buying a pump 2 or 3 months before the birth. Did loads of research and read bad things about the Medela Swing and other hospital grade pumps. Ended up buying a Spectra 3 based on good reviews on Amazon and a half price deal (supposedly cost similar to Medela at full price)- what a mistake! Awful instruction booklet (Korean poorly translated into English); no fine control on the dial to control vacuum (stupid spring-coiled thing that kept twisting backwards on its own), so ended up with either no milk or excruciating pain, boob sucked off and a nip the size of a cherry tomato; and non-microwaveable parts so sterilisation was a pain. Straight onto ebay. I then borrowed an Ardo Calypso from the free breastfeeding counselling service for 14 days - this was an absolute godsend! Quiet, comfy to use, simple one-touch buttons (digital display) to control vacuum and cycles. I was so impressed I bought one myself - not cheap at 119 quid (plus 19 to get upgrade pack to make it a double pump, also comes with different-sized breast shields so you can get the right fit for you) but worth every penny for comfortable expression! Think the Ameda Lactaline is a similar pump. My boy is 20 days old now and we're getting on fine, he's has his tongue tie snipped but is a cluster feeder at night so need to express to keep up. The Ardo is an investment, I know I'd use it with a subsequent child and resale value is decent. Good luck!

I found the Medela Swing very good but would advise on waiting to buy until you baby is born. Mine was tongue-tied and I ended up expressing almost exclusively for a few weeks. If I hadn't already bought a single pump I'd have got a double.,.

I use a medela swing. No idea on open systems and not about to start scaring myself. Its fantastically easy to use. I have a pulmonary embollism and ive been in hospital with newborn last week. I used the hospitals medela to pump so i could have scans and then my swing at home to balance myself up a bit. Found it ver efficient, not to noisy and very easy to understand.

I bought the Tommee Tippee (I liked the anti-colic and BPA free bottles). But the electric pump was all but unless. The suction wasn't strong enough and ended up giving up expressing. I've heard good things about the Medula ones though and wish I had bought that instead.

This is the scary stuff you are thinking of on the Medela. After reading that, I couldn't touch them and shelled out the extra for an Ameda.

I have lost the paperwork now but when I was researching pumps it was quite clear the Swing was a single-user item...

I bought the Medela swing at 6 months and it was great, I certainly didn't find any of the problems mentioned on that website, but I never intended to sell it after either. For the first 5 months I used a Tommee Tippee hand pump, and that was for an awful lot of pumping - I went back to work when DD was 19 weeks, and also pumped a lot in the early weeks because of poor latch and thrush.

I had an Ameda Lactaline, second hand, then pumped 5 days a week for a year. It was still going strong when I sold it on ! V easy to clean, and very effective too

Sui - true, but I'm not sure I'd want all that gunk in my pump even as a single user. The photos put me right off!

World - she had to break the pump apart to find those yucky bits, so you wouldn't necessarily see it in normal use.

I dunno, for me it all looked a bit too badly designed, but I know lots of people like the Medela...