Breast pump advice

[unicornchaser]

Any well recommended breast pumps?
I am mostly going to be Ff but would like to express enough for a bottle or 2 a day in the initial days/weeks.
Any recommendations? I don't want to spend big money as it won't be used long term but there are so many options I don't want to end up with one that is rubbish!

Thanks!

Just get a manual pump, I got one for about £20 I think. You can also rent pumps if you want an electric, but I think that’s probably more than you need!!

To be honest, it'll be hard to maintain a sufficient enough supply to have only one or 2 bottles a day unless you really are committed to it, so personally I'd save my money.

Medela Manuel breast pump works great for me

Thats not really how expressing works. Its a supply and demand thing and I wouldn't think that would be enough to stimulate milk production.

You need to be expressing every 3-4 hours in the early days to maintain supply.

What I mean by 1-2 bottles a day is I will express as needed for a couple weeks and freeze it so I can top up the formula with some of the goodness from breast milk in the early days. I won't be continuing with it though so would be over the top to get a fancy electric one.

But I have heard that a lot of the hand held ones can be rubbish and difficult to get a decent amount from hence looking for some recommendations

I haven’t been able to breastfeed and have pumped for DS for 12 weeks, now moved to formula.

I would recommend you hire a Medela symphony (the double pump they use in hospital) instead. It does cost £47 a month, but it’s so strong and efficient, takes much less time taken to pump compared to my own smaller medela. Double pumping takes some knack! They deliver and collect. I think some health visitors / breastfeeding consultants also rent them out.

Hi I'm planning to exclusively express feed, if you only plan on doing it a few weeks I defiantly recommend you hire a hospital grade pump for those few weeks, they should be so much better at giving to the best milk supply but you wouldn't have a huge outlay. In my research the speactra s1 seems to be most recommended

I know you’re doing this with the best of intentions but you’re underestimating just how difficult it is to get a decent amount of milk from expressing (even with an electric pump) especially if you’re not BFing as well to stimulate supply. I doubt you’ll get enough to freeze a stash - whatever you get your baby will drink easily in one feed.

I’d be minded instead to just hand express colostrum in the first few days and leave it st that.

I’m not meaning to be dismissive but expressing milk is hard and time consuming work when you’ve got a newborn to care for.

I'm using avent manual 14 weeks in.. I've no complaints at all and recommend x

Some people also start collecting their colustrum before baby is born. Do lots and lots of research there are some really good websites out there

Mother care have tommee tippee ones half price. The manual one is down to £15 and the electric one is down to £50

Hi OP. Would recommend either expressing and storing colostrum in syringes before birth or else just breastfeeding baby for first couple of weeks and seeing how you get on. You never know you might find breastfeeding straightforward and enjoyable and then be able to avoid he faff of using formula.

It's not that simple to just pump and also feed formula at the same time. It takes 6-10 weeks to build up an adequate supply. This is why babies cluster feed so much in the early weeks. So if you decide to pump you'd need to mimic this pattern and double pump using a good quality double pump 8-12 times daily including throughout the night.

Don't spend loads of money on a pump just yet. If you must, just buy an avent manual. It seems to have the best reports for a manual. And as other posters have said, if you do decide to exclusively express, hire a hospital grade pump initially. If I were to purchase a double pump again I would choose a spectra S1.

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, I was just in mothercare and spotted the tomee tippee manual pump (hadn't read this before hand so thanks for suggesting @jellyfish2210) down to £15 so just got that.

I will be hand collecting colostrum if I can get anything before the birth so will just see how I get on with it.
I am more than happy to just go with formula if the pump doesn't work out as I would like so at least worst case I've not lost a lot on the pump.

Thanks all!