Breast Pump advice

P

parents2b

New member
Hello Everyone,

I am mother to be of our first baby in Dec and had some questions on breast pumps as I need to go back to work after the 10 week maternity leave

1] What are the benefits of en electrical versus manual breastpump?

2] What are the benefits of single versus double breast pumps?

3] Does one need to use the bottles from the same compamy as the breastpump manafacturer

4] What brands of breastpumps and feeding bottles do you recommend.

Sorry for there being so many questions - appreciate your advice on the matter

Thanks
 
I think that if you really want to be dedicated in pumping long-term, you should get a double electric. It's possible with a single but will take twice as long. I have a friend who has exclusively pumped for 14 months though with a Medela Harmony manual breastpump though so it's not "necessary" to have an electric at all, but a good double electric will make your life easier!!

You don't NEED the same bottles - but if you don't get the same bottles, you'll need to do more transferring. Think about what you want to use to store the milk as well...

I'm currently exclusively pumping for my 5 week old daughter - she is in NICU and will likely be there for another month or two. I pump with a Medela Pump in Style, which is GREAT but heavy if you want to be carrying it back and forth from work every day, then I transfer to the Avent Via cups for freezing and storage (I probably would have done breastmilk storage bags but NICU doesn't accept them. I think that the Via cups are GREAT for storage though and probably cheaper in the long term as well). I don't use bottles at all because my daughter's being fed through a feeding tube, but if/when she can take a bottle (she has a cleft palate along with breathing difficulties that are likely to make feeding difficult), I'm just going to get whatever is best for her, it might be a third brand altogether ;)

From my reading and from talking to others, Medela seems to be the way to go for breastpumps. Even their manual pump is pretty good. I have that and find it great. I use that sometimes when I'm out and about since it's light and easy to carry.

All the best!!
 
i'm also a new mother for 2 months. I used Meleda Mini Electric at the beginning, and found tat took a long time to pump like 40-60ml in 15-20mins, it hurt my nipples after every pump. Then, I have switched to Avent manual pump, it's very efficient like pump out 60-80ml in 10-15mins, and the most important is, it helps to drain my breast completely, that provides a signal to my brain to produce more milk next time. I have been using Avent manual pump for 1 month, and I can pump out 150-220ml in 20-30mins.

It's not necessary to use bottles and pump from the same manufacturer. I'm now using Avent pump and ChuChu bottle. No complaint so far. Hope these information could help.
 
I'm using the Avent electric pump and it's really much better than the commercial version of the Medela - not the hospital version.
 
I use Ameda's double electric pump (hospital version). Electric is so much faster than having to sit there and pump yourself. I used Ameda for my first, but used Born Free bottles. it doesn't matter which bottles you use as you can always just put the milk into any container you want. Brands of bottles are totally personal preference. I get the ones that are BPA free: Born Free, Dr. Brown's and Tomee Tippee.
 
You can hire a medela hospital grade one and see if you get on with it before committing as they are expensive and it's obviously a personal thing which you will get on with, you can get them from Celki in Causeway Bay.

I used a hired Medela and got a Medela Swing for travel both of which I thought were really good - I'd recommend using the same bottles as the machine you end up with just because it's an unnecessary extra step to transfer the milk to another bottle and give yourself two lots of stuff to sterilize.

I'd agree with Nicole, if you're planning to pump long term, definitely double electric.
 
Thank You

Thank You all for sharing our thoughts with me - its been really helpful and I feel I can now make up my mind - thanks a bunch
 
southside852 said:
I use Ameda's double electric pump (hospital version). Electric is so much faster than having to sit there and pump yourself. I used Ameda for my first, but used Born Free bottles. it doesn't matter which bottles you use as you can always just put the milk into any container you want. Brands of bottles are totally personal preference. I get the ones that are BPA free: Born Free, Dr. Brown's and Tomee Tippee.
Click to expand...

I am a breastfeeding consultant and recommend Ameda to my clients as it is very fast. However, since being in Hong Kong I have not found this pump and I hope you don't mind me asking if you actually bought it or did you rent it? If bought, please could you tell me where you bought it? Thanks
 
I used the hospital-grade Medela electric pump at Matilda before I got discharged and fully intended to hire one when I'm out - only to be told by Celki that the waiting list was 6 weeks long! So I ended up buying the Medela Swing electric, which I loved, as it could drain my breast completely (I was pumping at least 300ml from EACH breast in 30 minutes) and it was the only Medela pump which is easily transportable (I brought it home-work-home everyday for 3 months, and to Macau once as well!) AND is efficient (I found the other small Medela electric pump not very powerful). Just as well I didn't hire the hospital-grade one as I somehow can't imagine bringing that into work lol.

I stuck to Medela bottles as I can put the "products" into the fridge straight after pumping, and feed straight from the same bottles, without faffing around with pouring milk between bottles.

Bit of a cheeky note: if anyone wants a Medela Swing, I've got one for sale (check the classified section here).
 
I use the Ameda lactaline (aka Purely Yours in the US). It is cheaper than Medela and very good quality. The design is very clever in that the milk never touches the tubing which means there is no need to wash the tubes. With medela it is very difficult to dry the tubes after washing. Another feature I love is that you can play around with the speed and the suction. It's a small machine but as powerful as their hospital grade pump. It also is white with a simple design and I have it on my bedside table ready all the time. I got mine from Homecare Medical for 1750 or thereabouts. You can reach them at 2402 2188.
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For my first, I breastfeed directly but since I had a huge over-supply, I still had to pump after each feeding. I used the Avent Manual Pump for this and it was efficient enough. For my second, I decided to pump everything out since she was a horrible feeder and I felt like I needed to spend more time with my first instead of feeding all day long. Initially I rented the Ameda (Hospital Grade one) from Homecare. However, the pump horns were not the right size for my nipples. It was too big and it was causing problems. I tried to buy horns that are smaller but the silicone one that they have in HK was too small. The problem with using Ameda in HK is that it's not as popular so it's harder to get additional parts / accessories. Anyways, after 1.5 weeks of playing around with the Ameda, I decided to get the Avent duo electric one. I LOVED it. Was much more comfortable for me. It also comes in a bag so that you can carry the pump around (important for me since I had to go on a couple of business trips so had to bring the pump with me). I highly recommend the Avent. One thing that you should be aware of is that you can't change the size of the horns for Avent so I have heard that women who have bigger nipples have had problems with Avent. For both my of kids I used the Avent bottles.
 
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