confused about breast pumps!

[ALR123]

Have bought the Tommee Tippee steriliser and bottle set. Am planning on breast feeding but am confused about what i need!
If I go for an electric breast pump will I need that to be Tommee Tippee also? The girl in Mothercare said I do but it has really poor reviews.
am I jumping the gun and is this something I'd use further down the line and not straight away?
Baby's due in 6 weeks and I'm still as baffled with it all as I was 34 weeks ago!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Not used the Ardo. I bought the Lactaline when DC2 was about 6 weeks and it was good. I had a Tommee Tippee Isis with DC1 and could barely manage 5ml.

[NoArmaniNoPunani]

Does anyone have experience with the Ardo breast pump? I thought I'd decided on that one but I'm not sure now as it's not been mentioned once on this thread.

[villainousbroodmare]

Keep your receipt and keep it in the box.
The best of luck!

[ALR123]

Great thanks very much! I think I'm probably going to go with the lansinoh double one then.
If for whatever reason I don't use it there are always pregnant people at work I can try and sell it on to thanks again.

[villainousbroodmare]

Exactly what Running said.
I find it works well, just would say that if you are going to be doing a lot of battery-operated pumping, it takes 6 x AA and tears through them reasonably quickly.
If you do buy that one, it matches Nuk bottles, as I said, but I still reckon that's no big deal and if you've already opened your TT packaging, don't worry one bit.

[Runningupthathill82]

And yes - the benefit is that it's far quicker. Again, not a big deal as an irregular thing, but if you're pumping non stop then saving time with a double pump becomes a lifesaver.
You also don't waste any milk - I found that the breast I wasn't pumping would leak while I pumped the other one. But obviously if you're pumping both together, you capture what would have otherwise leaked out!

[Runningupthathill82]

Totally depends on how much you're going to be expressing, and you have no way of knowing til you're in the throes of it.
I expected to express maybe once a day til I went back to work at 4 months, then maybe 2-3 times.

What I didn't bank on was a baby who wouldn't latch at all, so I exclusively expressed - meaning I was pumping 8x a day, every 3 hours round the clock (yes, nights too!)

In a situation like that, a double pump becomes essential. I was getting 4oz in 40mins with the tommee tippee electric, but once I went onto the double hospital grade Medela I'd get 8 to 10oz in 10mins.

[ALR123]

Okay just been reading up the Lansinoh 2-in-1 double electric affinity pro. Looks good and has really good reviews.
Another question... do I need the double or is the single pump sufficient? Is it just beneficial because you express both at the same time?

[villainousbroodmare]

Aaaaargh, Libraries, that's pretty unpleasant!
I can say that the pump I happened to buy, the Lansinoh Affinity Pro 2in1 (2in1 meaning electric or battery options) is definitely a closed system.

[dlwelly]

Agree with the above about buying it now. If you can bf with no problems then you won't need it straight away but if not it's good to be able to get a bottle of ebm for the baby - chances are it will be 3am when you're having issues!

I have a medela mini electric and an avent manual pump (the avent was bought at 11pm on a Wednesday night when I couldn't get the baby to latch and we'd ran out of the milk we'd expressed at the hospital!)

i don't often express, only if I'm going out for a couple of hours alone so I tend to use the Avent one as it goes straight into the bottle she uses.

[FusionChefGeoff]

I needed my pump in a pretty urgent, baby not latching situation and also the suction helped make my nipple longer to help him latch. We had bought one with a view to leaving it boxed, ready to return in the rose tinted baby will just feed from the breast scenario. Instead we tore into it at 3am to get enough milk out to syringe feed my baby to just keep him going until I could see a real life BF supporter the next day. It took a few more days to really get the hang of BF and I wouldn't have managed it without the pump as I would have used formula top ups and likely ruined my supply from the off.

So I would advise buying it in advance. You can return it if you don't need it.

Can't comment on the open / closed question but I had the Avent electric one which was great for DC1 but motor died between pregnancies so just used the manual bit (came as a package) for DC2. Was much slower but much easier as didn't have to sit near a plug the whole time!

[3sugarsplease]

I have the tommee tippee one and the pump gave up about after a week

I found having a pump super helpful in the earlier days, when my milk came in my breast swelled so much DS could not latch. I tried hand expressing but this didn't help much. I found the only way to get a real relief was to express.

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

Things like the Ameda Lactaline are genuinely closed systems (but pricey).

Some people decide that they are happy with the Medela, but they definitely shouldn't be bought second hand or passed on (as lots of people do).

[ALR123]

I've just read that article Libraries, now I am confused! Is there one you would recommend that would be safer?

[Daffydil]

Do NOT get the tommee tippee one. It's truly shit. My Lansinoh manual one was far better than the TT electric one.

Any pump will come with bottles. Just pour into storage bags or the bottle you want to feed from.

[LibrariesGaveUsP0wer]

Please, please read about Medela and open systems before you make a decision. Here

[ALR123]

Really Runningupthathill , makes me glad to have asked here rather than listen to Muppet store assistants!

[ALR123]

All if this is so useful. Yeah I really didn't want the Tommee Tippee one i went to mothercare to get the medela one but my mum happened to ask the assistant if that was right and when she said no I needed TT I just left it!
Glad I checked now, im going to add it to my list of "things to stop stressing over" and just hope baby takes to breast!
Thanks MrsCrimshaw I'd not heard if that but it sounds ideal, I'll ask.
And thanks to everyone else too :-)

[Runningupthathill82]

Oh, and the TT sterilizer and bottles worked just fine with the Medela double pump, and also with the Boots manual pump I used when I was out and about. There's absolutely no need to get tied into one brand, and all matching stuff.

[Runningupthathill82]

Don't buy the tommee tippee electric pump! It's shit. I bought that, the steriliser and the bottles before DS was born - knew I would need to express as was going back to work at 4 months.
Ended up exclusively expressing for 3 months as he wouldn't latch, and hired a hospital grade Medela as the TT wasn't up to it...

[bluewisteria]

You can get sterilised bags that you can pump into then transfer to bottle or freeze. That way you can buy any pump.

[IAmAPaleontologist]

If you are planning on bf then you don't need a pump at all. If you did want to have the occasional expressed bottle feed then you can always hand express.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

And if you have a rocky start, the hospital should be able to loan you a pump .

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

You don't really need to buy anything for feeding your baby yet. I'd just get some breastpads and a feeding bra. Lots of women, including me, feed their babies but never manage to express a drop.

If you feel you do want to express, you could always try hand expressing. You can also collect and store leaked bm or just buy a breast pump if and when you do need one.

[LastOneDancing]

Just to muddy the waters....
From my own experience I'd do some prep and make sure you can get hold of a pump (loaned or bought) at short notice.
My DS wouldn't latch and hand expressing will only get you through the first couple of days, they need much more as the days progress and you need to keep your milk up.
You don't need to buy one - fx your baby will latch beautifully - but I would try to be prepared by having the number of the loan company/support people and/or the brand of pump you want (and where your DP can buy it) somewhere safe just in case.