Breast pumps

[HoneyMum21]

Hi all, i'm sure this question has been raised before but i'm new to the site. Can anyone recommend (or advise against!) any particular breast pumps? Do i go electric or manual? Will most breastpumps work with various different types of bottle?(I've got a while to go before i'm due so haven't worked out what kind of bottles we'll be using yet) - in fact, what are the best bottles to use alongside breastfeeding?

Thanks

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Hello!

We've noticed that this thread is quite old and thought it might be useful to point you in the direction of our breast pump reviews page which has some useful advice on the best manual, electric and double breast pumps on the market right now.

Hope that helps!
MNHQ

In all honesty i highly recommend learning how to hand express. I had the Advent one first.. lasted a couple of months and lost suction.. then the tommie tippee one.. same again! Hand expressing (although will get you a few laughs from DH) is much more efficient and you can empty the breast properly (machines dont seem to be able to do it fully) It takes a few attempts to get used to it but remember your trying to mimic the movement baby makes when they are latched on! I used tommie tippee bottles and didnt introduce them until almost 4 months.. Nightmare trying to get him to take it at that stage, so although it is recommended to wait till 12 weeks if a bottle is going to be something you will use every or most days, i would say to start early on. My LO is now 7 months and im still BF with the occasional bottle from dad when im at work.

Hi. With ds1 I tried a tommee tippee manual one first which I didn't get on with (not least as the 1st melted when sterilised and my sil had to have an argument in mothercare to get a replacement!). We then invested in the Medela swing which I did quite well with and know others who got on with it. I used the Medela bottles although he didn't have much expressed milk as he fed every 1.5 hours round the clock due to tongue tie but when it got down to every 2+ it did mean he'd take a bottle. It also meant that when I had to top up with donated milk pre snip he was ok with a bottle. Never went up a teat size though, once he was no longer bf at around 11 months we had the dr browns bottles as they worked well for us although cleaning was a faff.

And you need the pump and bottle to match.. they are not interchangable!

I've got on fine with my Avent manual one. I've got the Avent storage pots (which long term are cheaper and better space wise than bags that screw onto the pump. Then we have tommee tippee anti colic bottles. But tbh dd rarely gets a bottle. It's more for when we go out n my mum has her

I'd second learning how to hand express first. I am using the Ameda Lactaline Personal pump, partly because it is the same brand as the ones in the hospital (have a prem DS who's still in SCBU so am exclusively pumping at the moment, will eventually exclusively breastfeed) and also because I read good reviews about it...plus it fits the disposable bottles from the hospital.

Expressyourselfmums.co.uk is a good site for info, lots of reviews on there. Something to be mindful of is cleaning method - some pump collection kits can't be sterilised in the microwave for example (such as the Ameda kit, I am using Milton at home and steamer at hospital) so think about how you'll be cleaning it.

I'm afraid I can't offer much advice on pumps - I think different ones suit different people, and some people get on with expressing whereas others don't, but that doesn't have any bearing on their milk supply IYSWIM? i.e. you can have a great supply when feeding directly, but not be able to express all that much (a friend of mine has found this - she has oversupply, but expressing doesn't produce all that much).

Having said that, I guess electric would probably be more sucessful than manual? I use a Tommee Tippee manual, which works ok for me (now! Didn't to start with! I only bought it cos it was cheap ), but I find myself missing the lovely hospital electric pump

Anyway, I actually came on here to mention bottles!

My hospital SCBU use NUK teats, and recommended that I continued to use these at home (I have to give DS a certain amount of expressed milk for his vitamins and other medicines). They are orthdontic, and the latex ones in particularly are supposedly a good mimic for the nipple. You can buy them online from NUK (medium hole teats, either for wide neck bottles or standard bottles, which you can also buy online), or you can sometimes find them in pharmacies / mothercare, although I've found them a bit scarce!

Sorry for waffling, hope that was helpful

Thanks for all the advice :)

Do bear in mind that it is worth thinking about whether you will have an open or closed system (have a google. Open is yucky IMO!).

Also, just because certain bottles go with certain pumps doesn't mean you have to match everything up. I have an Ameda Lactaline and only the two bottles that come with it, and no teats. I store milk in either those bottles (they came with lids) or storage bags, but when I have given DD2 a bottle it's a bog standard Avent one that I happened to have already from DD1.

Thanks youlllaughaboutitoneday hadnt even considered that. At the moment I'm looking at the Phillips avent ones (both manual and electric) but can't seem to find if they are open or closed system - does anyone know? Thanks

Get the spectra breast pump from Amazon, fantastic bit of kit. Its 60 pounds and as effective as the Medela symphony that i used at hospital. I am stll expressing 4 months on and my pump is as good as ever.

Thanks pigletmania - does it work with any specific bottles ?

You have to use the bottles for the breast pump, it cmes wiht one, but a pack of 6 bottles costs 6 pounds also from amazon so they are not too expensive. I pump into the bottles than transfer the milk to a tommee tippee bottle

unfortunatley because of a rocky start bf did not work out and ds refused to latch on after he was better. This pump has enabled me to express my bm for him, the sucktion is great. it was recommended to me by another lovely mumsnetter,its a lifesaver. read the reviews on amazon you will find that people love it to. its plug in electric one

it is more expensive, but I definitely recommend the Ameda Lactalpine dual pump. BF is all good now, but in the first 8 weeks it was a bit of a nightmare and expressing was crucial to. keeping up my milk supply. I started off with a Tesco manual pump, but after 3 weeks it was taking me an hour to pump enough .... with the Ameda, I expressed more than enough in about 15 mins. This significantly cut down my stress levels as I was able to get some sleep. And for that, this electric pump proved invaluable.

and bottle wise, Dr Browns...

I pump exclusively and use the Ameda Lactaline double pump. I think it's great, I use it between 5 and 8 times a day.

Another vote for the Spectra from Amazon here - I can express loads with it and it's only £60 - i just use the bottle it came with to express in to and then transfer to a TT :)

I have a Tommee Tippee and an Avent pump but find it far more effective to hand express!
I use the Lansinoh storage pots which I have been pleased with.

I use a medela one it's amazing, I didn't want to breast feed at all so my dd is on expressed milk only, I get about 5oz off in under 10 minute and store it in bags then just put into her normal mam bottles, the pump was about £90 but worth every penny