Breast Pump Tips??

[Lunamoon23]

Hello!

First pregnancy and I'm hopeful to breastfeed our baby, I've been looking into buying an electric breast pump to make life a little easier and so that my partner can share the feeds with me sometimes. But it's a minefield.

Wondering if anyone can recommend an electric breast pump?? That's easy to use for a first time mum! Will be durable and last but also not excessively expensive.

Looking to get Bundle ideally which comes with some bottles, storage bags etc. I've been leaning toward the tommee tippee single electric breast pump but as with everything reviews are so mixed.

Thank you in advance ladies xxxx

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It might be better to wait until you've had the baby before buying a pump, they're pretty expensive and if you have problems with breast feeding you might find you've wasted money.

But for actual recommendations, if you're going to express fairly regularly or you intend to carry on expressing when you're back to work I'd recommend a double pump, it'll save so much time. You can use them one at a time if needed, but it's great to have the double option.

I didn't do much research when I bought mine but I got a lansinoh one on an Aldi special buy and I was pretty happy with it, planning to use it for my second baby soon too. That was over two years ago though so no idea if they still do them.

I think basically what you need to look for is one that is "hospital grade" for best efficiency.

I’m a NICU nurse and I would recommend Medela or Ardo, with Medela being my first choice. They’re both hospital grade. My advice would be to use either of those at least whilst you establish your supply. You can hire a Medela pump for a monthly fee, it is delivered to and collected from your house which is super convenient too.

Other brands and the in bra type are well liked by lots of the Mums at work but usually only once their supply is well established.

I’d avoid anything Tommy Tippee, including the bottles. And also, if you can double pump (both breasts at the same time) you will save so much time.

I had a Pipetta with DC2 which I loved and would recommend. This was only for bits of pumping though for DH to do a few night feeds a week, not regular, long-term, heavy duty pumping. I sacked it off by about 8 weeks too as my supply had regulated by then so then I was getting miniscule amounts so we just used formula after that for the bottle feeds.

Bella baby. Great value for money, check out the reviews on amazon.

Don’t pump until you’re 6 weeks post partum at least and your supply has regulated. You risk creating an over supply if you pump too early.

Also you will have to pump whilst DH is giving baby the bottle as otherwise your boobs will think baby has dropped that feed and your supply will diminish. For that reason DH never does night feeds, it’s too much faff by the time we’ve warmed milk, I’ve pumped, washed pump, burped baby etc. Much easier to just stick boob in baby!

I have a Medela harmony hand pump which was brilliant for a few weeks where baby was sleeping longer periods and I was engorged, I’d express a few ounces off and store in the freezer.

Then for work I have a momcozy s12. Slots in your bra so can continue doing things whilst pumping.

Also have a look at paced bottle feeding, it’s a way of feeding bottles that mimics breastfeeding and reduces risk of baby favouring bottle over breast and reduces wind.

I just wanted to say that I started pumping a little bit within a few days of birth for both my DC and never had any problems with oversupply. I also never got up to pump if DH was doing a feed, I would pump one side whilst baby was feeding the other side at other points in the day. I never had any problems personally and I intend to do the same with my third. But as I say it was only a couple of feeds a week that DH did and so I didn't pump large volumes frequently or anything like that.

Bella Baby electric pump off Amazon. Not very pricey and worked great.
I pumped/expressed from the day I gave birth as I had a c-section and issues with my supply at the start. I use to have to pump after every feed to encourage my milk to come in and this was advised by the midwives. To be honest I didn't understand why I was doing what I was doing at the time. It wasn't until a health visitor asked when my baby was 2 weeks old why was I pumping after every feedand then I began to understand what I had to do. Eventually I reduced expressing down to once a day and my baby took expressed milk from a bottle no problem. I did have oversupply at some point and blocked ducts but with learning the ropes etc I eventually figured out what was best for me and my baby's feeding routine.

I used a spectra and liked it. Tried an Elvie, thought it was rubbish and took it back.

I did hire the spectra for a month before buying, i think it was £25, I also bought a second hand unit and new breast bits which made it cheaper. I had a pretty vigorous pumping regime because of hypoplasia