do I need a breast pump?

[mayaknew]

Planning on giving bf a go just wondering if I need a breast pump? Never bf before so no idea what I'm doing

A pump is useful if a) you can express extra and leave it with others so you can go out a bit longer, or sleep, and the baby can still be fed, or b) sometimes it helps if the baby is slow to gain weight, eg I was advised to give my slow-gaining baby a bf, then a feed of expressed milk (as it's less work for them to get out) until he got stronger.
Oh and I forgot c, sometimes expressing a little can help with engorged breasts to relieve the pressure.
So, probably worth it - but could get a cheaper manual pump till you see if it suits you.
Lots of advice on here and also website kellymom often recommended on here, and a local bf support group would all help you get started IMO.

The question is, if you were breastfeeding and suddenly were unable to (had to go to hospital etc) would you be happy for your baby to have formula until you were able to feed again? If yes, then wait until baby is here and see how you get on before buying. It is useful to allow someone else to feed, but you can buy a pump at leisure. If no to formula, then get a pump and build up a store in the freezer just in case.

I researched pumps prior to dc1s arrival and in the end decided to wait and purchase once BFing was established. Well that never happened as I found it horrific so in the end Im glad I didnt waste the money.

There is always Amazon Prime if you need one swiftly.

I had no intention of getting one. Then my baby arrived 4 weeks early and went into NICU so I couldn't feed her so I used the hospital one so I could still give her milk. Then when she was out she was still too weak to breastfeed, she found it too hard, so I'm still expressing and bottle feeding. You can just pop to boots and buy one if needed. I have the Medela Swing double, well worth the expense for me.

Yes, pumps are useful - and in some cases essential - but don't buy one until you know if you'll need one or not.

The reason being, cheap ones are usually rubbish and if you buy an expensive one and don't use it (plus steriliser, bottles etc) you've wasted an awful lot of money on something that few people will buy second hand.

Before I had DS I spent the best part of £100 on a Tommee Tippee electric pump and bottles. And that's at the cheaper end of the spectrum!
Was almost never used because I ended up exclusively expressing and hiring a hospital grade pump. The Tommee Tippee just couldn't cope with that sort of use, and was slow and noisy.

I've also had friends buy pumps and never use them for a myriad reasons - their babies refuse bottles, they're too tired to spend ages pumping off a small amount of milk, or they don't end up breastfeeding when they thought they would.

Honestly, just wait and see what is going to work for you.

New born babies need very little volume of milk, a lot is wasted on a beats pump. Learning how to manually express is a really good idea, maybe picking up a cheep manual pump in a sale of you see one mite be handy. I managed to get a Medela manual for about £5 in boots when they had a big sale on. But as I used it about twice glad I didn't spend much on it. I did breastfeed for 4 years just didn't need to express much. In fact I found hand expressing easier for me I never got much out with a pump.

I did manage to sell mind on eBay - cleaned to within an inch of its life of course! - for about half what I paid for it. So eBay could be a place to look, however my original one stopped working and JL changed it straight away, which wouldn't happen with eBay of course.

I got one after the baby was here and I managed to BF. They are really easy to get hold of. My DH got a great one from mother care. I couldn't have lived without mine as my daughter wouldn't take formula so I would express fortunes I had to leave her / have a small break. I also produced a lot of milk (eating too much porridge I think!) and used it when I became engorged.

I planned on BF and wasn't going to get one. Ended up getting a small manual one for £20, just in case.
I was so glad I did. BF was a nightmare to establish. DD wouldn't latch for WEEKS. The last thing I wanted to deal with after coming home, with the BF stress and baby blues was buying a pump to try and maintain my supply. Obviously the manual was good for the short term until I got a better electric one (and eventually a hospital grade double pump).

If money isn't tight I'd say a manual is worth having ahead of time. I wouldn't go straight in with an electric. The lansinoh manual has been great.

I have read that you shouldn't bottle feed expressed mil until about 8 weeks so in that time you can see if BF is for you and then get a pump. I was researching and they can be very expensive and even more so if you don't end up BF

If you do get one I have heard the tommee tippee ones are not great ones to get

Sepa - why on earth do you think you shouldn't you feed expressed milk til 8 weeks? That's simply not true.

As my DS couldn't feed from the "source" til he was 10 weeks old, it was expressed milk or formula, and I chose to express.

Maybe pp is thinking of nipple confusion using a bottle - but when I've fed expressed milk to a newborn it was using a teeny cup thing anyway.

Because of nipple confusion. If you can BF but can bottle feed with expressed milk then then that's fine.
I said it was something that I have read so it's not something I have experienced so I can't go into the science behind it all

I'm glad I had one, I was in so much pain in the first couple of weeks due to some mammoth cluster feeding so my DD ended up having a couple of bottles of expressed milk. I also had an oversupply so pumped some off before feeds. As someone else said hand expressing is a good skill to learn and you can practice it from 37 weeks onwards.

The nipple confusion is hit and miss, some babies will be fine, I still breastfeed my DD at seven months and she had one bottle a day from week one. The exclusively breastfed from month 4-6 then back to introducing a bottle.

I had a cheap Philips hand pump, which I didn't get on with, and so bought a Medela hand pump, which was better for occasional use. When I needed to really express (to build up supply, and then for a nursing strike) I hired a hospital grade electric pump which was far better.
So I would say no: hire one if you find you need one.