I hate the Medela Swing Pump!! (LONG)

[BabyBearsMom]

The Medela Swing Pump is a sucktastic waste of money. That's right, sucktastic! I have a Medela Pump in Style that I love. It works great, for my 3 pumpings/day at work and I have never had a problem with it. I leave it at work so I'm not carrying it back and forth every day. Today, I had to call in sick. DD is at daycare, and I can't bring her home because I'm not up to taking care of her on my own today. So I am at home with no pump and no baby and full breasts. I try the manual pump but it just isn't getting the job done. I decide to go down to my local baby store and buy the cheapest electric pump I can find, and this way I will have a pump at home for the next time I am sick or if my other pump dies. Well, my local baby store is pretty fancy and the only double pumps they have are the Freestyle, the PISA and an Avent one, all are $280+. So I see the Medela Swing for $150. I figure, I can make due with a single sided pump for occasional use, I know Medela makes great pumps, and the price tag is much more reasonable. I bring it home, read the directions, wash the parts and start pumping. First of all, the suction is pathetic. It took me 30 minutes of pumping one side just to get my breasts to a comfortable level, not even to totally empty them. So it took me over an hour to pump both sides to a comfortable level. I cringe to think what will happen to my supply after a day of not totally emptying my breasts. But that isn't even the worst part. The worst part is the little white flange/flap doesn't open and shut with each pump like it does in the PISA, so the little yellow cap fills with milk. I'm not paying attention, busy looking at pics of DD to keep my let down going, and suddenly I notice it sounds different. I look down and see that the milk has flooded up into the tube and the tube is full of my milk. I followed the directions EXACTLY. What a piece of crap. I can't believe I wasted $150, I could have done a better job hand expressing.:32:

Thanks for reading if you got this far. Sorry it's so long.

[Momof3Labs]

Yeah, we could have told you that the Swing was crap. Your $150 would have been better spent on a Lansinoh pump (the old ameda purely yours) at Target. Sorry - that really sucks. Or it doesn't. You know what I mean.

I don't know how old your baby is, but one day will not destroy your supply. It could dip a bit but will quickly come back once you are back to pumping/nursing on schedule.

[BabyBearsMom]

Thanks. It was a desperate moment. I figured the baby store would have the biggest selection, and wasn't feeling up to driving around. You did give me a laugh with the "suck" pun though. I'm just so disappointed in Medela. My DD is 3 months and my supply is doing well, but it has been a long road to get my supply to this level (I am BFAR) and I hate to see any regression.

[wellyes]

Hmmm, I have a Swing and it isn't that bad. It's weaker than my PIS and I have to keep pressing the + button until it's on full suction. But it works. I think the reason the yellow cap didn't dispense is lack of suction / not enough force to expel the milk. I'm wondering if you got a lemon? I'd definitely look into the warranty if I were you.

[WolfpackMom]

I think the reason the yellow cap didn't dispense is lack of suction / not enough force to expel the milk. I'm wondering if you got a lemon? I'd definitely look into the warranty if I were you.

:yeahthat:

Medela has excellent customer service, I have emailed them before and gotten a response within a couple hours. You might try contacting them.

[Andi98989]

Definitely contact Medela - the zipper pull (not even the full zipper) broke on my PISA and they sent me an entire new pump.

[HonoluluMom]

How frustrating! I have a PISA and love it and probably would have done the same thing as you.

I have contacted Medela before and they are very responsive. You may want to contact them and maybe see if they'll give you a different model.

[jal]

For the occational use, DW liked the Avent Isis. Yes its a manual, yes its a single. But it worked fast and easy enough for occational use. She used it mostly as her "portable" pump.

[Kestrel]

This is a suggestion from another angle.

When I was sick, DS still went to daycare. After all, we still have to pay when he skips a scheduled day, so why not? While I was "home" sick, I went to daycare and nursed him there, then went back home. Everyone there was very supportive, and they have a small private room to nurse in if you want, or a little seating area in the lobby you can nurse if you'd rather. I never did have a pump at home. Daycare is close to my home, and worked well for me.

[gatorsmom]

For the occational use, DW liked the Avent Isis. Yes its a manual, yes its a single. But it worked fast and easy enough for occational use. She used it mostly as her "portable" pump.

:yeahthat: I took mine on vacation with us when I left Gator for 5 days when he was 4 months old. It did a really good job of emptying me. :)