Electric breast pumps. Advice needed

[lockdownpregnancy]

To all current mommies out there, breast pumps.......🤯🤯
All I know is a want an electric double pump one, that is portable.
Can anyone recommend as good one, that does cost a fortune? (Less than £50)
I've been looking for ages and with all the mixed reviews I'm just totally lost!
My friends and family have either just breast or bottle fed, so they have no advice to give me!
Help! X

Also if you go out for the day you have to take a pump / bottles with you and make sure you have a way to keep it cool. If you have a night out you will have to express whilst you're out and when you get home. I've had to ask friends if I can go upstairs to express before and it's just such a pain. I was lucky I had a good supply and by 12 weeks could get all I needed from 4 pumps a day, but I still had to set an alarm to get up and pump in the night even when baby was sleeping through! The injustice.
However aside from the negatives it was really very rewarding and i was so so proud of myself. It is doable with planning but you just have to be prepared going in to this how much work it is. I had an ameda lactaline, bought it 2nd hand and replaced parts.

I rented a double breast pump from my local breast feeding group, at a whacking 30 quid a month, until I remembered that the lactation lady who comes round the hospital to help with feeding if needed, said her I one ok amazon which 37 quid and it has the highest ratings. She recommends it to all breast feeding ladies. I couldn't remember which one it was but I went on and found the one that had the highest reviews, I am pretty happy with it tbh, it's yunbaby and was under 40.

Thank you all sooooo much for your comments and advice. I literally had no idea of the work involved and having to pump every 3 hours or so, even in the night!
I will have a proper chat with my DH later and let him know what's involved. It may change his mind as it's him that wants me to express and I was totally on board with it, until all of you lovelies enlightened me!
I do honestly believe now that formula is the best way.
Plus I've just had a super long chat with my sister in law on the phone about the whole thing and even she said just to go with formula, if I don't want to breast feed and I should in no way feel pressured by others.
Thank you all again, you have been so helpful ❤️❤️

Glad you've had a good chat.

I don't think it was anyone's intention to persuade you to BF, I think most posters just wanted to provide information for you and share their experiences.

Good luck on whatever you decide

"it's him that wants me to express"

Please let this be a lesson not to let your partner dictate what you do with your own body.

The same goes for your birth choices.

@NameChange30 it's because he wanted me to breast feed but understood that I didn't want to, so he said expressing which I agreed to, originally, as of course, breast milk is best for baby.
I honestly don't think either of us understood the physical and mental pressure with expressing!
As for birth choices, there's no issue. Natural birth if possible, but again, he understands if this will not be possible and I have to have a C Section. Hopefully just a nice normal birth without any drama! 😬

Glad you're in a better position to make an informed decision now. By the way if you don't want to breast feed (and like another poster I would just plan to formula feed in that case, with no judgement) you can still give the baby the colostrum for the first few days, either by hand expressing and feeding by syringe, or by breastfeeding for a few days) and then move to exclusive formula feeding.

Some women do exclusively express long-term, but for me too it was only something I did because I was aiming to transition to full time breastfeeding. It was also my 3rd baby and 2nd premie, so my milk came in quickly and I knew what I was letting myself in for. When you're recovering from the birth and having to set alarms to make sure baby is fed overnight, you'll likely be knackered even on 3+ hours between formula feeds - when I was expressing for DS I once had to set an alarm for 45 minutes later, which was all the sleep I could get in a 3 hour feeding cycle after bottle feeding him, expressing and cleaning all the kit!

Your partner sounds a little dictatorial. It's you who gives birth and you who can choose how you want to feed because it's you that will have to express or BF.

I bought a second-hand Medela Freestyle pump and then a set of brand new accessories (all the bits that actually touch you / the milk), cost about £100, much cheaper than a new freestyle (£300) and worked well for the whole 18 months I breastfed.