Recommended breast pumps

[sunangel88]

Currently 5 months pregnant and thinking of combined breast and bottle-feeding once bump is born. What breast pumps would you recommend? I'd prefer the automatic / electric ones but also keen to hear experiences with hand-helds. Planning to express for 12 months or more. Thanks!

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Hello!

We've noticed this thread is quite old and some of the product recommendations are a little out of date. We've spent weeks speaking to parents and testing out breast pumps. Read our breast pump reviews for a list of the best products on the market.

Hope this helps!

MNHQ

Care not vare. You should be able to find the right information about this on directgov.com where all your maternity rights are explained and your rights when you return to work. If work are funny about it or you need clarification you could also contact ACAS

Thanks for that link, btw.

You don't need to sterilise anything to do with breastmilk. Complete waste of time.

I'm toying with the idea of getting work to give me a 2 hour lunch break so I can drive back to breast feed (since I'm lucky enough to be only 15 mins drive away) Though it depends on how long it takes to breast feed! lol

Adding this link I've just found for future reference when I get ready to buy the pump.

Mumsnet best Ameda Lactaline it is!

I'm sure by the time you go back to work baby will have feeds sussed and not take too long dd now 5 months gets a full feed both sides in 10mins.

I used the Medela Swing and the Medela handheld, both of which are good in my view. They are automatic ones as I could never get the trick of manual expressing.

It was useful to express so I could occasionally pop to shop/do something needing me to be away more than 35min (DS was always greedy).

But by 4 months, DS took to refusing bottles of all makes and has never had an expressed bottle since. Or any bottle. My social life has been dead for around the same length of time.

I cannot recommend the Medela Symphony breastpump. It's the best one in my opinion. I started off using the Medela Swing, and only used it a handful of times. I just couldn't stand sitting there pumping one breast at a time. The Symphony allows you to extract MUCH MORE milk (instantly making your body produce more) and it pumps both breasts at once.

You can rent it out from Medela headquarters. They deliver it to you and it costs £40-45 a month. It may sound like a lot, but it was definitely worth it. I made enough milk for my baby in half the time.

I recently got the medela swing (double) electric pump. Really easy to use and I just boil it all to sterilize it, don't find it too much of a faff. I've also got some medela storage bags which are better for keeping a store in the fridge or freezer than bottles. Hope this helps :-)

I have had the Medela swing and the manual Medela. I prefer the manual one as it is quieter, no wires and easier to clean, besides being a lot cheaper! I can get 4.5oz pumping from one side with it and doesn't take any longer than the electric pump.