Breastfeeding

[FirstDD19]

Hi Ladies...

Can anyone suggest which breastpump is best? I have seen the Elvie ones that look good but are v pricey at £250. Are they worth it?

Did anyone breastpump in between feeds to speed up milk?

Can I ask DH to do a feed with a bottle in the night and BF myself during day? Is that confusing for baba?

TIA

Hi there.

My little boy is 4 weeks old and I am breastfeeding but also expressing. My partner gives him a bottle at night (2 at the weekend) to give me a break. We started this quote early on and he has no confusion between the two (still a boob monster!)

I have the medela swing pump and have a good stash in the freezer aswell as keeping a few in the fridge for day to day (if I am going somewhere as not ready to bf in public).

It’s a great little pump but only 1 sided so have hired the medela symphony double pump (the one they use in hospital) to build up my supply and get more as it’s a double pump too.

Hope that helps

I don't know about Elvie specifically, just I spent £100 on a fancy electric pump in late pregnancy which I've used once (in sixteen months of exclusive breastfeeding) so it was a massive waste of money. If I did it again I'd wait until baby is here and feeding is established then decide if/how much you want to pump. You probably won't want a pump in the early days because it won't work for colostrum then you'll need to do all the feeds at first to get your supply.

If you are in the UK, ask at your hospital about breast pump hire. Unless you plan to express regularly, I would not bother buying one. Our local hospital loans them out for £5 per month. You may also check with local breastfeeding groups. The NCT also does hires. If you will need it only for a short time, I would hire and not buy.

In my own experience, I found that feeding baby lots and not pumping is what helped to up supply. I pretty much fed every time he looked at me. About every 1-1.5 hours for a time. That did it. It's a lot of work initially, but it's really all you should be doing and it won't be forever. You can do a bottle at night if you want. Assuming your dh also makes sure it allows you to sleep. I found it was actually much more useful to do the feeds myself (from the breast), but dh did everything else. There were a few weeks when he would walk in circles around the lounge for 2 hour stretches with baby in a sling just to get him to sleep so I could sleep before the next feed. It was actually much better than him faffing around with bottles and waking me up doing it. It was only for a few weeks and then things really did settle down. How old is your baby now?