Hospital grade pumps

[yonderfive]

My supply is down to just a few drops. I have the medela swing, but it doesn't seem strong enough and very little happens. Is it worth renting a hospital grade pump? Are they much more effective? If so, how would I go about this? And which brand? Thanks

Sorry to hear this. Do you know what's causing the low supply ? I have only a small amount of breast tissue and found that a hospital grade pump did help maximise this. I rented from Medela directly for about £52 a month, process was easy, though the process of feed, pump, feed, pump is intense.

@supersuds

Sorry to hear this. Do you know what's causing the low supply ? I have only a small amount of breast tissue and found that a hospital grade pump did help maximise this. I rented from Medela directly for about £52 a month, process was easy, though the process of feed, pump, feed, pump is intense.

My baby won't breastfeed. He just screams and gets really angry. This hospital grade pump idea is literally my last hope 😢 just wondered if they're actually much better than the one I've already got or if it's a waste of time.

OP do you have a midwife unit you can phone? Here they rent them out for a fiver and you can keep it however long you need it (the £5 is for the sterile parts that have to be new for each person).

I rented from medela directly too as I exclusively pumped for 10 months. The swing was fine for one off pumping while out but not for 4-6x day.

OP are you getting any support in real life? How old is your baby? Have you spoken to a bf consultant / a health visitor / la leche league?

I pumped for 9m with DS1 using a medela freestyle. I heard very good things about spectras.

With DS2 I was able to breastfeed - right up til his third birthday - because I had support around me when things got tough. Direct bf is definitely easier than pumping - I know it's not always possible, but I'm hoping you've got the support you need to be able to make a choice of what's best for you.

@Slipperrr

OP do you have a midwife unit you can phone? Here they rent them out for a fiver and you can keep it however long you need it (the £5 is for the sterile parts that have to be new for each person).

Thanks. Do you think it'd be worth trying even if my current medela swing one doesn't seem to do much? Are the hospital grade ones much stronger?

I can only give you my experience of approximately 2-3 weeks however I used the Medela pumps at the hospital and used the Calypso (borrowed from NICU) and also purchased the Medela Double Swing.

The hospital Medela was hands down the best for me, it was so easy to use and almost seemed to maximise the output for pumping and felt quicker.

The Calypso was good but obviously not as powerful. It was also much noisier.

The Medela Swing for me was awful. It was so noisy and put me off. If I'm honest, the thought of having to use it was awful that I ended up stopping entirely as by then my supply was dwindling as it was too exhausting as it took so much longer than the hospital Medela.

If you can afford to give it a go, I recommend renting the Medela. They had posters around the NICU with rental offers so you may want to get in touch with your nearby hospital and see if they are affliated with them?

Have you changed the parts on ur swing ? Like the valves as this will make the pump less powerful and make sure the nipple flanges are the right size?
You can either rent a Medela or buy a spectra s1 is a hospital grade pump that you can pick up 2nd hand off eBay ( safe to do so as closed system) or Amazon sell them to. Double pumping should also help production levels