Help - novice pregnant lady - I don't know what to buy!

[mary33]

Hi,

I'm sure this is really obvious, but was wondering if anyone can help. I'm due soon and want to buy a steriliser and a breast pump and some bottles. Do I need to buy them all from the same brand or is everything standard sized? For example, if i bought medela breast pump but an Avent starter pack with bottles and a steriliser, would the Avent bottles fit into the Medela breast pump?

Thanks very much for any help, I am confused and don't want to make expensive mistakes!

mary

When in the shop, I'd take the stuff out of their boxes if you can and check. Ask a sales person if you can have a look, most don't mind.
Goodluck

Avent bottles have v wide necks compared to other brands. I had an Avent stuff for my eldest and bought Nuk pump and bottles for my 3rd (which I haven't used - interested?!) but they aren't interchangeable.

I used a medela swing pump which was pretty good-tho a tad noisy! This comes with a decanter bottle attached to the pump. When I had expressed enough I just poured the expressed milk straight into my avent bottles or sterilised food pots if i wanted to freeze them.

Had a medela electric pump for both kids and would recommend, though it's very noisy. I bought a good supply of bags for BM and froze it, then tipped it into my Avent / Tommee Tippee bottles. Also rented a double pump for hardcore pumping.

Steriliser - I didn't bother with this and just put my bottles through the dishwasher. Both girls fine.

Is this your first? If so, and you are planning on BF, I woulnd't actually buy anything yet. You may not want to express for some time (if at all) and there will still be shops open once the baby has arrived. I ended up with quite a lot of bits that I bought in pg which I would have held off on otherwise and it's a waste of money. I would wait to see how you get on with BF and then buy one. In any event, I don't regular expressing is a good idea for a few weeks until you have a good BF relationshop as it can send your supply into overdrive.

HTH.

Medela pump very good. I just put my EBM in to Tommee Tippee bottles.

Agree with chutneymary: if you're planning to bf, don't buy any bottles/pump yet. You will need to establish bf first, and by then will be a bit more confident in knowing what kind of things you'll want from expressing

Agree with chutneymary too. If you're planning to bf, then what you need is a baby and (ideally) two breasts...

I bought all that stuff with my first and 1) never managed to express more than a tiny sprinkling of milk, even though I was producing for England when there was a baby actually on my breast and 2) we never ever ever persuaded the baby to take a bottle. TBH, I wish I'd borrowed those things when trying the expressing route.

If you are going to buy, then I'd recommend an NCT sale which is where people like me pass on their unused/barely used equipment...

Thanks very much for all your help, I will hold off and see how I get on breastfeeding before I spend all my cash!

Yes, I found pumping/storing/sterilizing etc such a faff and DD didn't even want to take the bottle! Don't bother with it unless you need to.