breastpump advice

[fatnhap]

time to start pumping and let the good old hubby wake up at night!!! soooooooo many breastpumps in the market that making my breasts dizzy!! any suggestions from all you pumping mothers out there?

didn'\t like the avent hand pump at all. this time i'm using the medela minielectric, bought at boots, which is pertty noisy, but easy to use, very very easy to clean (i found the avent a fiddle) and productive. i never got much of a letdown with the avent, but no probs with the medela (touch wood)

fatnhap - only used twice because BF didn't work out 2nd time around and I switched to bottles - couldn't bear the hassle of pumping in the 'hopes' that we'd finally succeed on the breast (whole new thread that though!)

. I think because I was finding it nigh on impossible to BF this time round the chances of getting any milk out were practically NIL.

Had one (which I gave to my SIL) when I was BF DS1 and I used to get a LOT of milk out - I could easily do 6-10oz in one 'go'!! So 2nd time round was just generally a problem with the 'mental' side of things rather than the practical. So NOT the hassle and definitely not that it wasn't good enough as I loved my first one.

How much am I selling it for - very good question - I don't know. Don't even know how much it cost in the first place (DH bought it for me on a desperate 2am shopping trip to tesco to buy formula and bottles when BF wasn't going well - on my request). So I have no idea how much a 2nd hand one would go for - if you're interested send me a CAT and offer me something - and I'll probably accept

Gosh that really was a waffle - hope it all made sense!

PS sorry I only just replied - didn't see this thread again until just now -

Another vote for the Avent Isis, I had more luck with that than with the three electric ones I tried, from a small thing you buy in Boots for about £40/50 to the big boy they had at the hospital and the scary looking one I rented from the NCT - £2 a week so might be worth a try, horses for courses and all that. Good Luck.

Yet another vote for avent isis! The medela electric worked fine for me but was very unreliable in that it broke every five minutes (which could have been my fault) the good old avent isis kept on going for about 9 months of continual use (and I mean continual!)... If you were feeling rich you could go for a 'double pumper' they're good too, but I also broke that ..

umm..have you pumped before?
i only ask because there are other factors than the pump which affected my attempts at expressing.
sometimes i really had to 'get in the mood' and really think'baby baby baby' or the milk would just not come!

oh and one more vote for the avent handpump

I have tried avent (isis with via storage), medela mini electric and ameda lactaline. If you are after an electric I would say the ameda - hands down! It is very similar to the ones in the hospital - just smaller but equally as efficient. It is quick and relatively quiet (can be used for dual pumping too). I found the medela way too noisy . The avent - not bad for a hand pump but have to be very careful that it is twisted on perfectly or it leaks.

I'd forgotten it leaked! I remember that now... and yes the medela electric ones are reeeeally noisy

used avent hand held when I was expressing for dd in SCBU - also had access to an electric one from the hospital.

I liked the Avent Isis the best (have used old Avent handpump, Avent electric and anothe small electric).

I bought the Ameda lactaline dual breast pump for £75 when DS was born 8 month ago. It was very effective. But since then I have realised there are much cheaper electric ones and feel I paid much too much for this (I have just sold it on ebay for a very good price though, so have recovered most of the cost ).

With some of my ebay winnings I have recently bought the medela (Harmony) on the internet for £25.00 - hand pump but extremely comfortable and does the job as well as the expensive electric one !

But I only pump occassionally as I am now an official "housewife", so always with DS. Hand pumps are good for occassional pumping. You are probably better off with an electric one if you are pumping at work and don't have much time.

I am using the Ameda Lactaline and it is fantastic, I have tried other hand and electric pumps and found this superior by far.

I tried both the Ameda electric one and the Avent hand pump and definitely preferred the latter. The electric one made a right noise (reminded me of being an animal on a farm!) plus it made my nipples bleed cos it was so strong. Then switched to the Avent hand one which I found much easier to control. I also found it came with a better range of accessories, such as disposable storage bags for freezing supplies.

Oops, got it wrong. The electic one I didn't like was by Medela. Cost about £40. So the Avent one is cheaper too.

with elecrtic pumps you have to be careful to adjust the suction to suit you - don't just turn it on full. With the lactaline at least you can adjust the suction and the rate - so you can attempt to mimic the babies pattern (which you should try and do when pumping) - so fast and shallow until the milk starts to flow, then slower and deeper once the milk starts flowing. Massage the breasts before and during also helps.

For me not thinking about the baby helped as well - surfing the net/watching tv/reading a book - anything that took my mind of what I was doing. In my experience successful expressing was as much to do with the mental as the physical. Worrying about how much I was getting was definitely certain to reduce the amount .

I loved the Ameda Lactaline - bought it from the NCT catalogue and felt it was worth every penny in comparison to others i saw online (although maybe I didn't see the ones karaj was comparing it to?)

Before that... the good ol' Avent handpump, although I never looked at it again once I got the electric one. If time's an issue (when isn't it?) I'd go electric straight away Fatnhap

I used the medela double electric quite intensively and found it great - very efficient. Def. adjusted speed/force of pump though, and never could have it on the maximum.

I expressed every feed for my dd from day 1 as she would never latch on, and kept up with her til 4 months. I tried all manner of pumps, manual/battery/electric/single/double etc. The winner for me hands down was the Avent handheld. I could get 8oz in 10 minutes each time.

Yes, my wrist sometimes ached but it was so worth it compared to the double electric one which took twice as long to get half as much, was very noisy and quite apart from anything else made me feel like a cow!!

Avent Isis, Got 10oz first time I used it for DS2. Also when DS3 was born was premature and hospital gave me a Medela pump but ended up getting DH to bring in my Isis, much gentler and more natural.

Another vote for the Ameda dual electric pump. Quiet, comfortable and really effective. Could never manage the hand pumps.

Hi, My second baby is in premature unit, and expressing is an absolute nightmare. She is 3 weeks old and I never get more than 1 and half onces. Trying the Avant Isis right now. Not much luck. Feel like crying!!

PLINKY has SCBU got a machine there you can use?could be worth trying to express by the side of your babies incubator.

best of luck to you and your family. my sisters dd's were both in SCBU.

Thank you, now really crying. Can't get a pump in SCBU by baby, always so full of people. I just can't see how this going to work

Plinky, love, here are some tips I've gleaned mostly from MN about expressing:
Tips on expressing
? Don?t express from day 1 unless you have to. Wait till your milk supply is well established (and both of you have the hang of breastfeeding).
? Relax as much as you can. Don?t do your first expressing session under pressure to produce a certain amount by a certain time ? just see how it goes.
? Try hand-expressing to getting the milk flowing before you use the pump, especially the first few times. A warm flannel on the breast can help too.
? You?re aiming for a let-down (especially if you?re using a hand pump) ? that feeling of milk coming in which you get when breastfeeding. Different women get this in different ways; it may help to think about your baby or look at a photo ? on the other hand you may find it better to read a frivolous magazine or watch the TV. See which works best for you.
? Milk comes out in spurts. As you get a let-down from one breast (you may leak slightly from the other at the same time) pump from that one, and then switch to the other when the first breast slows. Switching back and forth will produce more milk than pumping for a set time on first one and then the other.
? Some women express after breastfeeding, and/or from one breast if the baby?s concentrated on the other.
? A quiet night-time slot or first thing in the morning work well for many.
? If you?ve tried and tried and aren?t getting anything much, don?t push it. And you may even find that just as you stop worrying about it, the milk lets down.
? Don?t worry about having enough left for the baby. The breast will produce more milk when you breastfeed.

Breastfeeding counsellors ? who should also be able to help with expressing ? can be contacted through the NCT on www.nctpregnancyandbabycare.com or 0870 7703236; the La Leche League on www.laleche.org.uk or 0845 120 2918; the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers on www.abm.me.uk or 0207 813 1481; and the Breastfeeding Network on www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk or 0870 900 8787.

Motherinferior, thank you , v useful infor that I didn't know. What is worrying me is that I can't remember having a 'let down' sensation and also as I have been unsuccessful in gaining a good milk supply in the last 3 weeks, is it too late to increase the milk supply now.