Medela Swing - worth the cash?

[LuckyC]

I am going to have to express for the foreseeable future. Do you think the Medela Swing is worth the money?

Thanks.

Yes, yes, yes. I think it is brilliant. But if you are mainly or exclusively expressing, you might want to look into hiring a hospital grade pump (I think NCT hire them out).

I wouldn't recommend it after hiring a hospital grade pump as you probably won't find it nearly as effective but before that it is brilliant and small and light weight and very very useful!

I find it more natural than the lactaline but the breastshield is not as comfortable.
Having said that I don't get a lot of milk with either but I use it to stimulate milk production, not to feed my baby with the expressed milk.
Ask your health visitor to see i, f they can lend you one from the hospital, there might be a small fee/deposit to pay and you can try one for w hile.

Yes if you are going to be expressing for a while. I first bought an electric tommee tippee one but it kept bypassing and spraying milk into the air tube - a common problem apparently and extremely irritating. The medula swing is brilliant - easier to put together and more realistic and less uncomfortable.

LuckyC, If you'r going to have to express for the foreseeable future then you need to hire a hospital grade pump. End of.

The Swing is great, I have one and I love it, but it's in no way suitable for full time expressing. It would be handy to have a manual for when you're out and about. The Swing does work with batteries but it eats them by the pack, IME you're lucky to get 2 pumping sessions from one change of batteries before the suction is too weak to be effective.

Sorry, meant to add - No single pump is going to be suitable, you really do need a double for FT expressing.

Have you read the info on kellymom on FT expressing?

I didn't get on with it. I found it very loud, especially back when my daughter was little and I was feeding her from one boob then expressing from the other afterwards, it woke her up sometimes.

also, it broke after a few months of not an awful lot of use.

I love mine and find it quick and easy.

I am expressing mainly from the left as I have a scar that stops her latching that side.

So it sounds like the Medela is a good thing, but I should maybe try to hang on to my hospital pump or hire from NCT.

Will have a look at Kellymom.

Thanks all and any more info would be welcome.

There are reviews on the products section of MN. Not looked at them for a while (past that stage now) but presumably fairly unbiased. Different pumps suit different mums.

I have a Swing and really like it but I was expressing full-time for the first few weeks with DS and it was a nightmare. If I had to do that again then I would definitely hire a hospital-grade pump to save time and tears.