Breast pump advice

[sel2223]

Sorry if this isn't the right place to post but I'm looking for recommendations for breast pumps for baby due in March.

With DD1 I breastfed for a year but really struggled to express. I had some limited success with a hakaa but didn't like my electric pump at all (can't remember which one it was as it was 5 years ago). It seemed a lot of effort for very little reward.

Fortunately last time it was during covid and I was at home so could do every feed myself but I don't think that'll be the case this time so I really want to try harder to express.

Would you recommend manual or electric? single or double? Any specific model?

Also interested to hear any tips for successful expressing. TIA.

Usually the advice lactation consultants give is wait until your baby is here as you'll then know better what specific needs you have. If you don't need to pump regularly I've seen a manual one recommended as you can do it quite slowly which actually seems to get a lot more milk.

I also suspect that whichever pump you have it will feel like a lot of effort for very little reward! I used an elvie which was OK but leaked quite a lot so the hands-free element wasn't that useful and it was super expensive.

Don't go with manual, I did with DD2 and massively regretted it, really hurt my hands, I had trouble getting her to latch on the first week As I was so engorged, plus we always planned to combi feed with DD2 as DH was taking over with his pat leave at 6 months. The hospital loaned me an Ardo Calypso electric pump for two weeks which gave me piece of mind when I struggled to latch her, I then bought the same pump and was really happy with it and used it to produce milk for bottle feeds and when I went back to work.

Manual did absolutely nothing for me. I had a nuby electric pump and it did the job, I was an occasional pumper.