When to buy a breast pump and which one?

[Loonaandalf]

Maybe this is mental nesting but I’m finding myself down an internet rabbit hole at 6am while I should be getting ready for work, thought it would just be easier to post a question to real mums.

I’m only 19 weeks pregnant so I have time but I was wondering when mums start pumping? Can it be done straight from birth?
I’d to pump so my DH can do at least one feed a day but I’ve heard that newborns can reject bottles if they are used to the boob, is this true? Is it something you can persevere with if they don’t like it?

Also, since they are expensive, I’m wondering whether I should wait until I see how breastfeeding goes as some women stop due to low milk production. Hopefully that doesn’t happen me, if I have a problem with milk production a pump would be an awful waste of money right? Same if the baby rejects the bottle.

I did see one post on here that said pumping was helpful when her baby was tongue tied (I’m tongue tied so I guess baby could be?) but then the bottle was rejected once that was sorted.

Also, is it necessary to get a double pump or would single do?

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I'd say 4 weeks after birth is a good time to start looking at pumps.

By then your supply will be beginning to be established and you'll start to know of you want to pump or not.

If you're mentally prepping for BFing there are so many other things you can do rather than buy a pump.

Have a read of:

Information is your ally.

What BFing supplies do I need?

How does milk production work?

I'd also put the numbers for the BFing Support Helplines into your phone and call them as soon as you have a query or a problem, don't let things get overwhelming before you reach out.

And go along to your local BFing Support Groups as soon as your Mat Leave starts so that you meet some local BFing Mums.

You might also want to read BFing for beginners. Caroline Deacon's books are all evidence based unlike some baby gurus.

Forgot to add that your DH can do a lot to help without feeding for the first few weeks. He can bath baby, he can settle them whilst you have a bath, he can do nappy changes.

There's some information here on how to support a BFing Mother that he might find helpful too

Up to you but I found pumping a colossal and pointless faff. I did it for ages with DC1 and went through hours and hours of trying to get him to take a bottle just so I could go to a day long hen do.

Didn't even get the pump out with DC2.

Just breastfeeding was so much easier and quicker. DH still had plenty to do helping settle in the night after a feed and taking DS from 5am until he had to.go to work so I got more sleep then.

I'd also say 4-6 weeks before thinking about it. Unless you need to, I wouldn't pump. You've still got to spend the time pumping so it's not any better than just feeding your baby directly. DH didn't do many feeds but he did all night nappies, any other nappies when he was around etc, was responsible for getting me snacks and drinks. That was much more helpful.

If you do end up needing one, I found Lanisoh manual and Bellababy the best.

Also, if you 'need' to pump in hospital then they will give you one.

If you are planning to nurse the majority of the time I would just get a silicone pump like the Hakkaa to collect an oz or 2 each feed, they cost about £10.

If you plan to pump more I would recommend the spectra S1, I exclusively pump and swear by this machine. 1000x better than my wearable pumps (i have 2). It cost me £160

women not having enough milk is actually very very rare. Women think they don’t have enough due to lack of knowledge and support about normal newborn feeding behaviour. My own MIL (who has never bf) was telling me that the amount I was feeding wasn’t normal. It absolutely was.

I would hold off on the pump and instead set aside money for a lactation consultant in the early days. Have a look now and see if there are any breastfeeding support groups near you.

I borrowed a hospital one when I was there and bought one at Mothercare on the way home from hospital! DD1 wouldn’t latch at first so we used bottles of expressed milk for a couple of weeks while we got the hang of breastfeeding.

I wouldn’t buy one before giving birth. There’s always next day delivery from various shops if you felt like you needed one at any point.

I wouldn’t buy a double pump unless you are going to exclusively pump.

This is so helpful thank you and appreciate the evidence based recommendation especially. I had no idea there was a breastfeeding helpline. That’s amazing!

Your midwife will recommend waiting until 6 weeks to offer a bottle so that baby doesn’t refuse breastfeeding. This is a tricky balance as some then refuse the bottle.

My first never took to the bottle, I had a small hand pump I used occasionally but never really established a pattern. My second I started at 4 weeks and offered a bottle a day. My husband was also taking shared parental leave for 5 months and I was going back to work so I knew I would need the pump more, and so I bought a hands free pump. I was lucky as I work from home so I would just pump while getting on with work, not in meetings. I found this worked well and pumped up to a year, and bf at night until 13 months. This was sooner than with my first but DS developed a habit of biting so we stopped.

Agree with *bucking", knowing what's normal when your BFing is incredibly helpful. So I'm about to add an article to the suggested reading list

Feeding your newborn, what to expect in the early weeks.

I don't know anyone who used a breast pump. My second baby was in NICU with a feeding tube for three days so I did try at the hospital but very little success. Fortunately we established breastfeeding when she got out.
I'd wait and see.
If your partner wants to 'bond' more then bathing the baby (I did mine daily as part of the nighttime routine) is also a lovely gentle way. Baby is fixed on you the whole time.

thanks, do you have a link to the Hakka one. Is it just manual?

We introduced a bottle of expressed milk at around 4 weeks. This did allow me to feel like I was having a little break but I still needed to pump that feed, so it didn't give me any more time/rest. Sometimes it was the bedtime one sometimes it was one around 11pm. People do stop BF due to low milk production but if you follow some lactation consultants this seems more rare than people think. In lots of cases (but absolutely not all), people underestimate how much they need to feed in order to establish and maintain supply, and introduce bottles of formula early on as top ups to give themselves a break or help weight gain. If you do this without pumping it can impact establishing good supply. And pumping is an extra effort. They can also do this because they assume babe isn't getting enough milk because of the amount of time babe is feeding, assuming they aren't getting enough. Of course there are cases where for other reasons less milk is produced and issues such as tongue tie which can impede breastfeeding, for which you can look into specialist support. I found our local nhs infant feeding team so helpful along with a local charity who came out to check latch etc and held support groups.

The best prep you can do is to read about normal feeding habits (ie on demand, not spacing every 3-4hrs, cluster feeding, growth spurts, hormone production etc). It also helps to have a partner who does pretty much everything else eg nappy change and resettle etc. Its gruelling but once your supply is fully established you can start to tinker with things and it does get easier.

I'd say it can be tricky to introduce a bottle the longer you leave it. Some never take to it at all, others are fine with it, others start fine then refuse (often around 4 or 5m old), we persevered without pressure and he retook again at 7m. He then developed a bottle preference and went off the boob for a bit. We used a haaka at first and then a fraupow wearable pump which only costs 60, it lasted a year before we needed new parts and I used it daily.

Good luck on your journey, I found BF to be incredibly convenient and a gorgeous experience, but it's not without its downsides

It also helps to have a partner who does pretty much everything else eg nappy change and resettle etc.

Forgot that with my first DH did the food shopping and cooking for ages but then DC1 was a bit "intense"

I agree with all the comments above about support etc but as you also asked about specific pumps, I've breastfed / pumped for two babies and used a lot of different pumps for various reasons, including pumping for DD1 instead of feeding whilst she spent two weeks in NICU. These are the ones I've used and what I thought of them.

Medela symphony - this is a pump you can hire for around £40 a month. Used by hospitals for NICU mums so really powerful but has to be plugged into a wall. Large flanges plus bottles which I hate but it's a great workhorse when I was pumping a lot.

Medela swing - home pump which was OK but quite noisy. I only had a single which was a pain!! If you buy one, def get a double as it makes life so much easier to do both sides at the same time.

Spectra s1 plus - rechargeable but big unit, although it has a good handle to carry about. It uses large flanges plus bottle which i found uncomfortable. Everyone raves about it but i found it inconveniently big and I really didn't like the flanges. I found them to be very hard plastic until some of the others.

Elvie stride - the pump I'm using currently. Really really like it. Sits in your bra and is rechargeable so you are not tied to the sofa. Has probably been my favourite so far. If you don't want to spend so much, the lactation consultant I saw told me that a pippeta wearable pump does a good job for less money.

Hakaa - tried with both babies but I could never get on with these as both my babies have been incredibly fussy feeders and kept knocking it off.

There are also loads of second hand pumps available online. You can buy new replacements for the parts that are touched by the milk but make big savings on the motor unit itself as they don't keep their value for selling on.

The one thing I would say is definitely get your baby checked for tongue tie by a private tongue tie specialist straight away. We had an awful experience with my second, where she had a really bad one that was missed by 6 or 7 different NHS people? It was only found quite late by a private specialist and it absolutely destroyed our breastfeeding experience.

Hi OP. I got a Haakaa and used that to get a freezer store of milk. I wanted my dh to give a bottle but by time he got milk in bottle and was ready to feed baby , baby was all ready fussing for milk and would then refuse bottle as too hungry as baby went to boob instead!
It worked best when I left baby with him or family for a few hours.
Slso our health visitors loan brest pumps too. So see if you have that near you?

I just had a baby delivered early due to a slight brush with death. I was 36w and had colostrum which the midwife expressed and fed. Milk started coming in straight away but because baby was early and losing weight, I was told to pump to measure it.

i love pumping as opposed to feeding but we do both. We also use the Timmee Toppie bottles as they are apparently most similar to nipple. He has no issue latching on the boob as well as taking a bottle. Nights are easier, we are almost 1 month pp now.

I used the hospital pump when there and then bought an in bra one on Amazon when I was released, it was £30 and it’s great. Does the job. I wouldn’t buy until the third trimester

There are also loads of second hand pumps available online. You can buy new replacements for the parts that are touched by the milk but make big savings on the motor unit itself as they don't keep their value for selling on.

If you're buying secondhand, like I did with mine, look for one that has a closed system.

The one thing I would say is definitely get your baby checked for tongue tie by a private tongue tie specialist straight away. We had an awful experience with my second, where she had a really bad one that was missed by 6 or 7 different NHS people? It was only found quite late by a private specialist and it absolutely destroyed our breastfeeding experience

As well as the the article I posted earlier about what to expect, it really won't hurt to read up on how Tongue Tie can affect feeding

I just had a baby delivered early due to a slight brush with death

Congratulations on your new LO. All of that sounds a bit traumatic! How are you both now?

Personally I hated pumping it made me feel like a cow and I never seemed to get much for the amount of effort, whereas DD feeding herself was extremely efficient

Milk can be used at any time if you pump but it's worth knowing that your body is so clever that milk is pretty much bespoke for the situation its produced for - that morning milk is different to evening milk which is full of sleepy hormones, milk on a hot day has more fore milk which is 'watery' to keep baby hydrated for frequent feeds whereas other times there is more hind milk which is more filling. If baby comes into contact with pathogens you have already developed antibodies to your body will add them to the milk a day later to protect baby.

Baby feeding directly from you is also important as they regulate the demand, lots of feeds will stimulate lots of milk for three days in the future ready for growth spurts, less feeds will generate less milk.

Pumping is incredibly useful but it can interrupt those natural and instinctive processes. There are lots of ways that your partner can support you after having a baby, but for both you and baby it is generally better to feed directly.

I wouldn't order anything now and see how you get on, most places now do Next Day delivery so it's no bother if you get further down the road and decide there is something you need

Great advice, would I be able to know myself if baby was tongue tied since I have it myself and know what it looks like?

Sorry what do you mean by a closed system? And can the pumps go through the dishwasher usually? (not the electric bit obv)

Great advice, would I be able to know myself if baby was tongue tied since I have it myself and know what it looks like

Possibly not. If you think LO has the symptoms of TTT* you'll really need a Tongue Tie Practitioner.

Sorry what do you mean by a closed system?

"Closed system pump - Closed system breast pumps have a barrier which stops milk from leaking into the mechanism and prevents any cross-contamination from bacteria or viruses. Hospital grade pumps are all closed system to safeguard against cross contamination and to make sure that the milk is safe for your baby Closed system pump - Closed system breast pumps have a barrier which stops milk from leaking into the mechanism and prevents any cross-contamination from bacteria or viruses. Hospital grade pumps are all closed system to safeguard against cross contamination and to make sure that the milk is safe for your baby"

And can the pumps go through the dishwasher usually? (not the electric bit obv)

Medala has some info on using the Dishwasher heree*