Has anyone ever hired a breast pump??

[Clarabumps]

I am contemplating hiring a breast pump for ds imminant arrival as I'm not sure about which electic one to buy(after many hours trawling product reviews) and my manual one ended up in bits after being flung against the wall in frustration at not being able to use it the last time.( post bf blues!!!)

I was wondering if anyone had hired one and had they found it to be faster?, more effective?a complete waste of money? any of the above.

All comments will be gratefully received!!
Many Thanks
xx

yes yes yes!
i had one from the NCT and it was fab. just liek the ones you can use in hospital.
if I needed to use one again i would def hire again.
they are much, much, much better than a manuel one or some of the cheaper electric ones you can get out there.

Yep - I hired one directly from Medela, is great, I've had in for nearly three months now. Have a look at www.medela.co.uk/UK/breastfeeding/breastpumprental/index.php , there is lots of information on there. I hired the Lactina breastpump as was the same one I had been using whilst in hospital (my baby was in SCBU as born 7 weeks prem) It costs £75 for the first 14 days and now £40 a month. Which is quite expensive, but my son is not a good breast feeder (due to several different reasons) and so as I am still expressing most of his feeds for him I find it much quicker and easier to use a hospital grade pump like the Lactina. Good luck

was going to say, if you think you'll end up using it long term it's probably cheaper to buy one.

Yes, I have hired a medela symphony pump, it is bloody good. Previously with DD I occasionally used a manual mothercare one, it was a lot of labour for not much milk. I have been using the medela one this time, since my premmie twins born 2/12 ago. You can double pump with it and it just seems to get more milk from me than the manual one used to!

I used several different ones (Avent manual, Avent ISIS electric, Ameda Lactaline (retail double pump), Medela small handheld electric, cost about £65, Medela Symphony (big yellow handbag) and an Ameda hospital grade pump (think it was called Elite).

My personal favourite was the Avent handheld once my supply was established. Not impressed with the electric version.

I would hire a Medela Symphony, especially if you are ok with double pumping - well worth the money as they cost about £700. I found the Ameda Lactaline a good second although with more bits to assemble/sterilise/lose. I think Medela do a range of different size funnels which some people find makes a big difference to comfort/amount of milk expressed.

As well as hiring direct from medela, you can also hire/buy accessories from www.expressyourselfmums.com

I had 2 different hired double pumps from Ameda with ds. Both were great, although one was smaller and more portable than the other. As I was pumping for weeks because of supply issues, it became cheaper to buy a pump. I bought an Ameda lactaline and for me it was just as effective.