expressing with twins

[Jenbird5891]

Hi, i'm looking into breast pumps as I intend to mix BF with expressing after the first couple of weeks so that I can get some rest and others can help out with feeding. With twins, has anyone done this successfully? If so which pumps would you recommend? I'm def not bothering with the manual pumps but am weighing up if it's better to buy a standard double pump like Medela Swing with the Calma teats etc or would you recommend going straight for the hospital grade pumps that can be hired? Hire seems to be £45 per month compared to buying a pump for £170 ish? How much better are the hospital grade pumps and are they just quicker?

Also, would you wait until the twins are born rather than buying/arranging hire in advance? I guess if there was a problem establishing BF in the first place then it would be a waste to buy a pump or can your body still produce milk for expressing if u do it regularly without actually BF?

Hi there congratulations on expecting twins. IME the electric medela double pump was worth the money and was by far the most expensive purchase we made.I bought in advance and M/C said if unwrapped I could take it back. Didn't look into hire. I pumped at the end of each feed -like 30mls per side as I never had much extra, but just enough is fine and by the evening had enough for others to do the 10pm in bottles and I slept for a couple of hrs after 7pm feed/tidy/chores/dinner until the dream feed (where you don't wake them and simply attach) at about 1am. Eventually I had a wee bit in the freezer. I think you can express without BF, many mums with babes in special care do this. Also check out My Breast Friend twin feeding cushion, pricey but great for correct latch/comfort.

I expressed to mix feed twins for 9 months and definitely recommend spending what you can on a good double electric pump. I had a Lansinoh one which was excellent - well, the motor gave out after about 7 months but the warranty covered it for 12 months so they replaced it free! I would recommend getting one if you can although you could hire a hospital one for a month to make sure expressing is what you want to do before spending lots of money. It might be worth having a manual one too for emergencies or when you're out and about. I had a medela one and it was great. Regarding bottles, my twins were unfussy and we just used the standard Avent ones with standard teats, they were fine and there didn't seem to be any nipple confusion. Good luck, it's hard work in the beginning but so worth it!

I had a single models swing pump. Best £100 we spent. I used the hospital one when I was in and yes it's quicker but I got on just fine. Highly recommend pumping 10mins after each feed in first few weeks to get supply up. I'd get a full feed in about 5mins of pumping and chucked in fridge / freezer for later. I also did fed from bottle in first 2weeks and didnt experience nipple confusion.

Medela not models!

I hired a hospital grade pump for several months. It saved my sanity...

I'd got used to using it as the girls decided to turn up early and spent the first few days in SCBU being tube fed. In some ways that was a pain as my body became used to the very powerful vacuum generated, rather than the gentle suck of a baby or a retail type pump, and sorting breastfeeding probably took longer as a result (they were my first children).

Another vote here for hiring a hospital grade pump - I was able to express enough daily for night feeds for 6 months and it was so much quicker than a single one.

Im expecting twins too and also plan on breastfeeding then expressing and bottle feeding. ive bought a relatively cheap manual breast pump already, with a view that if i dont produce enough milk/struggle or whatever it isnt a big loss, but at least if i can it will put me on until i can invest in something better rather than waste my money and it be redundant in the end.

My local sure start centre used to lend out hospital grade pumps for free. Might be worth a look.

My twins were small for age so we were pretty much given no choice but to start them on bottles of formula from day zero despite me saying I wanted to breast feed. The compromise was both babies were offered the breast first every feed then given their bottle. After the feed I would hand express colostrum and give it to them in a syringe. Once my milk came in the midwives suggested continuing with hand expressing or trying the pump. Pump seemed more efficient and it was great to slowly see my milk creep up each day and to know that even though my babies would only manage a few minutes on the breast before tiring they were still getting the "good stuff". We're now home and we continue to feed them breast, then EBM, then formula if they're still hungry. I was discharged on the bank holiday and couldn't get the hire pump until the Wednesday so bought a cheap avent hand pump which was a lot better than I thought it would be. It allowed me to pump enough to supplement feeds but it took hours to get anywhere near enough so a lot of my day was spent being a cow! Now back on the more efficient hospital grade pump which we're hiring. Yes it's an expense but for us the ease of pumping enough for feeds plus knowing we can easily return it (no faffing trying to sell it) once we get both babies to 100% breast made it an easy choice. We also knew it worked having tried the same model in hospital-I didn't want to take the risk of buying a different brand that then wasn't as good. The hand pump is in my change bag though to use in an emergency.

I mix fed for four months then bottled. It just took so much time to express, breastfeeding was undignified and I couldn't do it out of the house (not tandem, and as they were slow feeders I didn't want to feed one then the other).

I bought a Medela and it was crap. I bought an anawiz (?) double pump which was good - noisy and a bit painful though. I liked the manual Tommee Tippee pumps and used two.

I wanted to exclusively breastfeed, but my boys were four weeks early. My milk took a week to come in by which point they were crying all the time. I mix fed because I was starving them.

DS 3 however latched on seconds after birth and didn't lose any birth weight! So what I'm saying is, don't beat yourself up if you don't manage it for as long as you want, and don't try and be a hero.

Yes I expressed for probably 6-7 weeks whilst they were in special care without being able to breastfeed. They were placed on the breast whilst they were having the breastmilk via a tube but they didn't have a sucking reflex because they were so early. So yes, you absolutely can express without breastfeeding.

I used a hospital grade one and then hired a Medela hospital grade one for 2 months after we got home to express after they fed (I was breastfeeding by that stage). I think for me, once the milk supply was established, I didn't need to carry on with the hiring - I had an Avent single hand pump which was great.

Good luck!