Whislt on the subject of expressing

[JulieF]

I have asked this question on an e group I am on and got some recomendations but I thought I would also ask here.

I am planning on expressing for my baby from very early on the last night time feed will be expressed and given by dh and I will also express some in the morning as well but maybe keep that for when I go back to work/have to leave the baby.

I was thinking of hiring or buying an electric pump but many people have also recomended the Avent Isis. Does anyone have any recomendations as to which would produce the best results?

Julie - they recommend not expressing before about 6 weeks, when breastfeeding is more established. But, I have tried both the Avent Isis pump and the Medela pump. I like the Avent one more because it is quieter and more comfortable - you feel less like a dairy cow. But I have to confess that when I got the Medela one this week, I get twice as much out in half the time! It was taking about half an hour to get 2 oz, but now in 10-15 minutes I am getting 4oz. So if you want to express a lot, I would suggest an electric one, but if you want to express at work discreetly, then the Avent one is better. I use them both, for those different functions.

If you are going to do it daily I'd hire as they are the most comfortable and effficient pumps. They are too heavy to be regularely moved around though.

Rental ones are quieter then Medela (I have used both)

Horses for courses, really. I get 10 floz out with the Avent in my lunchbreak

Why are we told not to express before 6weeks? The only time I ever got a decent amount was in the first couple of months. I've never been much good at expressing, but I'd managed to express 2-3 oz over the course of the day, and however little I got I would freeze it. With dd, once she was a couple of weeks old dh started topping her up with as much ebm as she wanted after I ahd given her a last feed at our bedtime, and that way there was only ever one waking at night. It also meant that when I had to leave her from time to time in the early weeks she didn't have to have formula.

Afraid I don't have any reccomendations for pumps as, like I said, I've never managed to get much out in any case! On the few occasions I've 'pumped and dumped' I did it manually, and seemed to get a lot, but I've never managed to express manually in a way that felt sufficiently clean to give the ebm to a young baby.

The Avent Isis is a good pump and is maybe worth trying first before going to the expense of an electric pump. I found hand expressing most effective myself but not everyone is comfortable with it.
For those of you mentioning the optimum time to start expressing, it can be done before 6 weeks. It isn't really a good idea before 3 weeks because it takes the baby that long to learn to feed properly and for breastfeeding to get established. It is best not to give a baby milk from a bottle unless they have learnt to breastfeed properly as sucking from the breast and from a bottle are 2 different techniques. Also, expressing too soon can lead to overproduction of milk as the body tries to produce the right amount of milk in response to the baby's demand. However, as long as all these things are borne in mind, it is OK to express earlier than others have been advised.