Breast Pumps

[Pilotbaby]

Does anyone have a breast pump they would recommend? I will be a stay at home mom and planning on just nursing if all goes well. This will be my first baby so I'm not sure how much use it will get but assume I will need to do some pumping.
Thank you.

[swissair81]

I wouldn't recommend buying a pump unless you are sure you will need to pump a lot. If you need to pump short term, there are medical supply places and breastfeeding stores that rent by the week. You may want to wait and see if you will really need it before purchasing- especially since it voids the warranty if you resell a used pump. If you still feel you need one, a reasonably priced one is the lansinoh double affinity. You can even buy it at Target. It's made by Ameda, which is a well established pump company.

[indigo99]

If you search in the food forum then you should find lots of threads about this. Lansinoh used to make a good double pump which I have and like. Their newer double pump is not the same though. The Ameda Purely Yours is a good option IMO if you'll just be pumping once a day or so (which I do in order to get some uninterrupted sleep) because it works but isn't too very expensive.

[Simon]

Having had two preemies, I have pumped a lot and used lots of different pumps. I ended up nursing Ds1 but had to exclusively pump for Ds2.

As a SAHM, I would a) not buy a pump until you are sure you need one and which kind. If you need one in the hospital, they should bring one to you and then you can rent a medical grade one for a few weeks. Those would be double electrics and are great, but way overkill for most SAHM; b) I strongly reccomed the Avent Manual pump called the Isis. It is available most everywhere (Target, BRU, WalMart, online) and was very, very effective for me. I owned three of these pumps and kept one at work and one in each car (when I was EP-ing and Ds2 wasn't on any solids yet). I also owned the Medela Harmony manual pump and it was awful in comparison. I do NOT reccomend that one. We bought it because we had lots of Medela bottles, but it was poor quality construction and all around not very effective for me.

FWIW, we did not use Avent or Medela bottles for either kiddo. Ds1 refused all bottles and Ds2 used Dr. Browns. So we pumped into the Avent or Medela then transfered the milk to freezer bags or the bottles for drinking. Really, pumping is a HUGE PITA and I recommend avoiding if you can!

Last, if you are really sure you will need to pump, because you already have plans to be away from baby, be sure you try the pump out waaaaaay in advance of needing breast milk, because many women find pumping difficult. There is a learning curve and feeling stressed because you need a bottle of expressed milk right.this.minute will not help at all.

[AngB]

Ameda used to make the Lansinoh pump and the Purely Yours, but they got bought out by Evenflo and their pumps are no longer as good, IMO. (Mine broke after 3 months of moderate use, it was still under warranty and the CS acted like it was totally normal for the motor to stop working after 3 months.) I took my replacement pump on vacation with us because I try to pump before I go to bed to build up my freezer stash, DH broke the tubing adapter part putting it into the car...because Ameda is not as popular of a brand as Medela- we can't get that part ANYWHERE in stores. Very few stores even sell Ameda. So in hindsight, I would have just went with a Medela Pump in Style.

[roseyloxs]

I highly recommend Medela's hand pump. My ds did not take to breastfeeding and I ended up exclusively pumping for him. I used the hand pump for the first 2 weeks and its extremely effective and fast. Works better then most cheap electric options. I know a PP mentioned it was not good for her but I found it to be of very high quality and loved the two phase pumping option. I also responded great to the pump and equate my large pumping supply(about 40 oz/day at my peak) with how great this pump was in the first 2 weeks. If your situation changes then you can re-evaluate. My dd naturally took to breastfeeding and I have only pumped for her once or twice and she has been nursing for over 2 years.

The most important thing for whatever pump you choose is to get a flange that fits you. A wrong sized flange will make a pump less effective and make it a painful experience. All pumps come with a standard size but most women need a larger or smaller sized flange.