Advice - buying a breast pump

[phoenixrose314]

Hi all, this is my first post on this forum - I am just over a month from my due date and I am more worried about breast feeding etc. than actually giving birth! Really excited about the prospect of bfing and having that connection with my LO, however am concerned as am going to have to go back to work before LO is even 6 months old. Due to complications with pregnancy and not working in a pregnancy-friendly environment (a nursery for children with learning/behavioural difficulties - I got hit in the bump deliberately almost weekly as well as often needing to manually handle "difficult" children), I was forced to take my maternity leave early and can't afford to be off for any longer than the 6 months.

So, my question is this - I am going to need to express milk for when I am at work (which I am hoping will only be 3 days a week now instead of full time), as well as just for times when my DH has the baby (he really wants to be a part of the feeding process too), so I will need a really good quality breast pump.

Was going to buy the Tommee Tippee manual breast pump, as it seemed reasonably priced and a reliable brand name - but my recently pregnant friend said it was awful and made it a horrendous experience. I have now changed my mind and am willing to pay whatever it takes to have a GOOD breast pump, also not fussed as to whether electric or manual, whatever will be more comfortable for me.

Any advice, or warnings against some? Any help will be gratefully recieved!!

Definitely go for an electric pump!

The medela swing gets my vote

I agree you should go electric if planning to do it regularly. I have Medela swing which is good. The ameda lactaline is also meant to be good. They are quite expensive though. You can sometimes hire them from nct branches which would give you a chance to see if expressing works for you before you shell out.

Another vote for medela swing. I also have a friend who had tommee tippee pump and found it awful. I've used swing with DS1 and am now using it with my DT's although not as often as between feeding twins and looking after a toddler I don't want to spend the precious little time I have expressing!

I have the tommee tippee manual pump as a friend gave it to me. It works fine for me and is straightforward, however it takes 20 mins to get 3oz or so, and I have a good supply (tending to oversupply). I only express occasionally. I would go for electric if I had to express regularly.

^ I agree, it is probably best to try and get bf established (4-8 weeks) before even thinking about expressing. I expressed at 4 weeks and I kind of wish I hadn't, milk supply went a bit mental.

Division of labour in our house for a month after birth went like this

me: breastfeed
boyfriend: everything else

I have the Medela swing and find it great.

In terms of timing, I expressed once or twice in week 3, and baby tried first bottle in week 4 and continued occasionally. We made it more regular (nightly bottle feeds with expressed milk) from 6 weeks. Baby has had no problems at all.

Good luck!

Thanks so much for the advice everyone, I might wait til I've had my little miracle and see how I go with expressing before I shell out for one then, and definitely will wait til LO is at least a month old before I express.

This has been very helpful, cheers!

I have an Ardo Calypso electric pump which has worked v well for me. It's pretty quiet too - I believe some of the other electric ones can be quite noisy.

Another vote for the swing - fast, quiet, really easy to use!

And another for the Ameda Lactaline, it always seems to produce the goods and is pretty quick. You need to practice a bit whichever one you choose, don't,expect 4oz on your first go. Morning is best as supply highest. Good luck!

I'm due in a 2 weeks and have just bought the tommee tippee electric breast pump, purly because it's half price at tesco direct at the moment (£50) so don't know how good it is. I couldn't get on with a manual one last time.

I found the tommy tippee manual one rubbish with ds1, invested in the Medela swing this time and it's so much better, I'd definitely recommend it.

Of you need to express at work and in large quantities whatever you do get a double pump. Otherwise you will be there a long time!

I have a medela freestyle but I know people swear by the ameda lactaine too.

My baby is five weeks old. She was born naturally, at 40w+3d in a pool, I was in hospital MLU for grand total of 10 hours ( I really wanted to get home to my own bed) and was perfect on arrival - no complications, no drugs for either of us etc. A textbook delivery in other words.

I didn't buy a pump in advance, having read the stuff that says do not introduce bottles too soon etc. Unfortunately, baby lost 10% of birth weight in first week - thats a bit too much. She seemed fine in herself no jaundice or anything but because she was off the graph I was on special measures i.e. a visit every 48 hours to weigh the baby.

Because it was Christmas I had a random selection of midwifes, community assistants, lactation consultants visiting - I suspect if it hadn't have been Christmas then I might have had the same person more consistently! Anyway, one of the visitors, I think the LC (the early days are a bit of a blur), said I needed to express after every feed to get my supply up and give it to the baby by bottle last thing at night. She also very helpfully lent me a pump - Medela Swing - and a sterile baggie of 'disposable' bits i.e. funnel thing that goes on your boob, silicon air tube, bottle and teat. She also told me to look on ebay for a pump and save a fortune. Finally, she said avoid Tommee Tippee but I can't remember why! It was either comfort, speed, efficiency or noise.. she said they always lend out pumps to women for 48 hours, but as it was Christmas and she was off for 11 days I could keep it until she got back

Baby is now fine on both bottle and boob - I was really paranoid about 'nipple confusion' so sent DH to Mothercare to buy an eye-wateringly expensive Medela Calma teat which allegedly works more like a boob. This made me feel better about it, and I think may have actually helped baby 'learn' to do longer harder sucks. I could be delusional on this point though...

Anyway by week 4 she was back up to birth weight. I got the pump (Swing) off ebay, and as I already had the sterile bits I felt ok about second hand. It cost me £35 instead of £130 in Mothercare (or £90 on Amazon).

I subsequently read a thread on here about open and closed pumps though so maybe run a search and make your own mind up? It basically says the Swing is an open pump so milk can get into it (unlikely but possible) and so not a good idea to use second hand - but as the NHS lady lent me one (and I had already bought one) I kind of ignored this?mine looks clean and baby seems fine!

Anyway, my suggestion is speak to your midwife/local MLU or wherever you are having the baby, see if they lend anything in case of need/emergency and if so what - I gather our NHS (South Wales) uses Medela, so made sense to me to trust them and get that.

Apologies for long post!

I had the Medela Swing but sold it and bought the Medela Freestyle so I could double pump. It also works hands free with clips that fit into your bra.