Has anyone used the Medela pump in style advance breastpump? Any good/worth it?

[Davidsmom]

Hi,

I am expressing several times a day and have rented a Medela symphony double hospital grade all singing/dancing pump which is fantastic.

As I want to at least give expressed milk if cant breastfeed (long story) I wondered if it is worth the £220. Distributers say it is pretty much as effective as the Symphony one but a lot of money to spend if not as good.

I would be spending £40 a month for possibly 6 months to rent the hospital one and it really isnt portable. So would just about be cost effective......

Oh, have tried several others inc Avent manual and electric but nothing like as good.

I haven't used the Medela ones, but a friend used the Ameda hospital grade pump (as did I) and then bought the Ameda Lactaline (about £80) and she reckonned it was just as good as the big one. She used it daily for almost 3 months.

I haven't used this but have bought the avent isis iq duo. It is fantastic. (though if the avent single electric one didn't work for you, don't know if this one would??)

I used a medula one which wasn't hospital grade.
It retails at about £50 - I managed to borrow it from a hv who is also an nct bf counsellor - have you asked your hv for poss loan of a breast pump?

I used this pump for first 5wks of bf as I couldn't latch..... tried latching at 4-5 wks & succeeded at 5wks. I didn't have hospital grade & I was ok.... have you spoken to a health professional to see if you require a hospital grade pump?

I tried the Medela mini, retails at about £55 which was very noisy, one setting and broke after a few days - not great. then tried Medela swing for about £90. it is much better and i would say if you are expressing a lot well worth the difference. i have even expressed in bed without waking dh or ds. i've no idea how they compare to advanced model or hospital grade models.

I've used all 3 medela ones! We were in hospital for 10 days so used the symphony. The "Swing" one (circa £90) is virtually the same I felt as the symphony - only symphony was a "double" one so much quicker. Might have had a bit more power alright being hospital grade, but I didn't notice a massive difference.

however, i did notice a massive difference between that and the medela "mini" electric at ~£55. Horrendous. Noisy as elma says. Also VERY painful. I could only use it for 2 days before I gave up.

The swing gets you quite close to the symphony in my view. Stay away from the mini!!!

I used the pump in style and have to say that if you want to use this exclusively then I feel it was not up to the job. I rented instead the one i used at the hospital (the make was Kitty matic or something like that) and this was fantastic. It cost around 400/500 to buy retail but I only rented.

The pump in sytle I had been given was around 200 in cost and I really noticed the difference in what I produced.
I would rent the all singing all dancing pump as I think you get what you pay for. OK the other may be portable buy you still have to find somewhere discreet to plug it in and store the milk after and I think it is not as effective.

Thanks for all the info people it's all useful.

Any more experiences- have to decide tomorrow whether to keep the rented hospital grade one or go fro broke with the pump in style (name puts me off for a start!)Unfortunately style and I parted company a long time ago- even pre preg/baby.

i use the medela swing to express once a day for DH to give the dreamfeed. is quick and quiet and have no probs with it at all.

based on what you are intending to use it for - which is expressing for all feeds. my advice is spend the extra and go for a pump that you know works - as everyone is different and whilst some rave about the medela swing, there have been others for whom it isnt the right pump. the medela swing is about 80 to 90 quid from memory so it probably is worth the extra amount.

At the risk of sounding like an advert I've been incredibly pleased with my pump in style - I'm now expressing twice a day at work and my times in the expressing room tend to overlap with another lady with the avent electic pump - I'm in and out of there a good 5 min quicker than she is with an extra 50ml per breast expressed. Plus I've found it very comfortable.