Breast pump question - is it worth hiring hospital grade pump?

[MuffinMcLay23]

Any views much appreciated - I have a medela swing which is pretty good but can be slow going to express with. I am contemplating hiring the medela symphony - it is the hospital grade pump. It is a double rather than a single pump. If anyone has used both of these can they possibly let me know whether it makes pumping significantly easier? I am assuming its more powerful but its hard to find information which actually compares the differences between the two. Thanks in advance.

To be honest I had real difficulty pumping with the Swing and a hospital grade one to the point where I pretty much ditched pumping. I pumped a bottle maybe five times in 2.5 years of breastfeeding. The only reason I found the hospital grade one somewhat quicker (but not a ton) was because you can pump from both boobs at once. I'd see how you go pumping with the Swing first and see if pumping works for you at all.

You might also want to see whether your baby will take a bottle first. Dd is five months now and has never taken a bottle of expressed milk!

I breast fed my 1st till she stoped at 10months old I found she would take a bottle at all of anything so was breast till she decided she didn't want it then took a bottle but wouldn't drink the breast milk, I had a fussy child she knows what she was.
Give it a go which ever feels most comfortable and gives you ease if your ggoing to breastfeed you need to be comfortable
Good luck xxx

I have the Medela swing at home but on a friend's suggestion hired the Medela symphony (I think it was £45 for 2 weeks) and the difference between the two was amazing. Hospital grade pumps are so much more efficient. I would definitely go for it.

I think it depends on the amount of expressing you are planning on doing. Mine were tube fed for a while so I was expressing a lot. That was SO much easier on the hospital pump. Once they came home and I was bf most of the time, I had a hand held pump for occasional use and although it was more work and less efficient, it was fine for the limited amount that I needed it for.

If you think you'll be doing a lot of expressing, I'd say it's definitely worth it. I have a swing and I also hired the symphony. Much quicker, as you can do both boobs at once, and the pump itself is stronger. Whichever you use, I'd recommend getting a pumping bra so you can be hands free. I bought the medela one but I'm sure you could easily make your own by cutting holes in an old sports bra. If you can do both boobs and still use you hands to mumsnet do something useful, it saves time.

How long does it take to pump? Can't you just do it while watching your favourite TV episode? Can you plan the time you do it so it's routine or does it need to be done at certain time when body tells you to?

How much are pumps to rent/ buy?

I just have a tommee tippee bog standard pump. It works absolutely fine for me. It always gets off enough milk and is relatively comfortable once you get going. I can imagine it would be much quicker to do two at once but not sure it's essential if it's really expensive. My DH is still on paternity leave though so I might change my mind if I'm trying to pump and feed baby myself.

To answer the above question. If you are solely expressing you get told to do it every 3 hours so your milk keeps flowing. I find I can push it an hour or so either side though when necessary but if you left it for ages your boobs would definitely be telling you it was time to express! I usually just mess on my phone to pass the time and it's not that bad!

I should add it's a tommee tippee electric pump! I think manual pumps would be hard work.

I hired hospital grade pump when dd was in SCBU and tube fed. Worked well and medela gave a discount to buy the swing once I returne the hire one. By this point dd was being bottle fed and moiving to breast feeds. Once breasting feeding was established I expresse a couple times each week for bottle feeds. I found swing fine but was used to expressing which helped a lot. Hiring a hospital grade pump is not worth the cost unless you are expressing a lot (I would only do again if baby wasn't breast feeding for a while).
Also I was at two hospitals one used medela which I liked the other amalda (I think) and I didn't get on as well with that. Maybe that medela doesn't suit you?
I had tried Tommy tippee (returned as got nothing from it - not a drop) and an advent which I borrowed for a couple of days. Was ok but found medela much better.

I hired the medela symphony as needed to exclusively pump (ie round the clock) whilst DS was in NICU and tube fed. I borrowed the swing from the hospital first to see if that would do, but it wasn't as powerful and better for supply (plus more efficient which is really worthwhile if you are pumping 10x per day) to double pump.

Medela give a discount if you have a baby in NICU/SCBU and the delivery and collection service is really quick (same day!) so you could always hire for a few weeks to see if it works for you? It was £30 a month with the NICU discount.

I had a friend who preferred ameda (? Think that's the other brand?) but I didn't get on with that one.

I had a Lansinoh double electric (around £110 I think) and it was pretty good. The doubles are easier as, obviously you can do both boobs at the same time and some women find they get a let down in both when they feed/express off the one. As pp have said, some things to bear in mind are that if you want to give a bottle you need to do so reasonably frequently and even then baby might have other ideas, some women just can't express easily at all, with any pump and it's boring, youa can watch tv but most women I know find it a PITA. It's for those reasons though that you can sometimes get good deals on pumps second hand (they're enclosed systems so ok second hand, any parts that get in touch with you of milk can be sterilised) as women find that they but one then ff, can't be arsed to express, struggle to express etc.

When my son was born I wanted to breast feed but we had a lot of difficulty and I ended up expressing. I only had a hand pump at first and it was a nightmare. I hired a hospital grade pump (a Medala) and it made a huge difference. It was a double pump so could do both sides at the same time and was much more effective at 'milking'. I used to look at my son or think about him to help the milk flow. I ended up expressing for 4 weeks and sent the pump back when I was done with it.

I pumped for 10 months every feed. I hired a symphony (in. Fact for the first few months I hired it at a bargain price from my local breast feeding clinic, worth investigating that if you can as it saved £££). I also have a Medea swing. I'd say the swing is fine if you are only planning to express occasionally, or up to once a day. Any more than that and if funds allow, I'd definitely hire the hospital grade pump. There is no comparison. I don't know your situation, but it also found the hospital grade pumps much better for increasing supply if you are having trouble. Swing is fine for expressing off the milk that is there already (for convenience/comfort). Hospital pumps much more effective at totally draining breast to encourage more milk production iykwim.

Hospital grade pump definitely much better, but depends on individual situation as to whether worth hiring it.

Swing is for occasional use. If you want to buy your own, Medela has Freestyle for frequent use, it's also a double.

Thanks very much indeed for all replies. I'm not worried about cost - just wanted to be sure that the hospital grade pumps are better and it sounds like they definitely are so I'm going to go for it.

Yes, hire. it is definitely worth it./ We couldn't get a double though.