Breast feeding and pumps

[Poppy1989]

Can any one advise me on the best breast pump to get in the UK?

I have both a medela swing and a haakaa.

The haakaa is a revelation - inexpensive and extremely easy to use. Also because it's a suction pump (no motor) it's silent.

The medela is also good and useful for pumping in larger quantities.

@featheredTail - would the haakaa one work for harvesting colostrum before birth? I'm having a section and have been told to hand express from 36 weeks.

Hakaa is great for catching any overflow while feeding on the other side. The medals swing is great for other pumping

Harvesting colostrum before the birth is really best done by hand expressing rather than using a pump. You will get very small amounts and might not be successful using a pump. There are some good videos on YouTube showing how to hand express if you are not sure.

Worth getting some little syringes to store it in - it really is tiny amounts. And agree with pp - hand expressing is best. The colostrum is so sticky it would gum up a pump.

This video is ancient, but it is brilliant.
med.stanford.edu/newborns/professional-education/breastfeeding/hand-expressing-milk.html

You're talking 1-5ml of colostrum at a time, hardly anything. No pump is good for that.

Personally I'd wait to get a pump. You won't need one the first few weeks and if you do, you can get one next day delivery. I borrowed a pump from the milk bank to donate there, but never used it for DS as he wouldn't take a bottle. You might no like or be able to breastfeed and not need a pump anyway and not everyone takes well to a pump- it's noisy and time consuming.

Ooh, also, the hospital where I gave birth would loan you a pump if needed - just gave a £30 deposit. Worth asking (afterwards) if you still think you need one, but you should be fine.

I had a section in Feb, and was also worried about my milk coming in. Did some hand expressing before, and it seemed to massively help, even with just expressing after for a sleepy baby. It will be fine - but do look at videos of hand expressing, it's really worth it.