Electric breast pump -any recommendations?

[cath]

Hi,
I am heading out to buy an electric breast pump tomorrow after giving birth to my little boy Patrick last Saturday (I have heaps of milk and he is a big sucker and I can see that I would love to express some in the future to be able to go out for dinner occasionally or to get my husband to do the occasional feed). I am considering the Medela Mini Electric Breast Pump. Has anyone used it ? Is it good ? Arer there any others that are good? I want to use en electric one as I think any the manual one would end up hurting my hand a bit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Cath

[whatwasithinking]

Hi

I used the Medina Electric Pump with my first DD 3yrs ago and gave up after about 2wks (hurt and took so long).

However with my second DD I bought the manual one and it doesn't hurt my hands nor nipples and I only need to express 10minutes each side and I get at least 125mls a time. It cost $95 from the chemist.

(and the initial reason I got the manual was I couldn't find electric one to rent).
So I would recommend the manual pump as my personal preferrence.

Good luck with bubs :)

[JessandKirra]

I hired one from the chemist. You purchase the more personal bits for $20 and hire the pump for I think $10 per week, i might be wrong but I do remeber I thought it was quite affordable. I used it in the beginning- engorgement and all that. Then I went to the aventi hand pump. I found that was good as I could take it out or to work. Even though you pump for bubba, while your out they keep creating milk. I suppose it depends how long you go out for.

My girfriend planned a suprise weekend away with her mum, dh looked after the baby with enough pumped milk at home to last, however the poor girl forgot her breast pump. Excruciating weekend she told me. :eek: Just a little story.. of the track sorry. ;)

[kimmy]

Used one in the beginning & i swear by it, it was great so much easier then a hand pump.

[Milly]

Hi Cath!

I have a Medela Electric/Battery pump and I love it. It is so compact and was not much different in price to a manual hand pump. I am so glad that we went electric/battery as I was doing quite a bit of expressing in the early days with my daughter. Plus, my cousin also recommended Electric/battery over manual handheld as she said that when she went back to work, the hand help ones started to really strain, and she wished that that is what she had gotten. Definetly the way to go.

We got ours at the Chemist Warehouse for $90. Big W were selling the Avent Manual for about $80. Glad I went the extra $10. :D I orginally had a hospital strength Electric from the hospital, but this what what we bought when we returned the hire one. Great value!

[Ky]

I had a Medela Mini Electric for my son and it was really great! He was drinking 170ml every 2-3 hours from the beginning (huge baby!) and I was able to express this much and get ahead of him with exclusively expressing for 6 weeks! If you are using it for a backup to breastfeeding, you should be able to use it for a long time.

I found it really easy to use, efficient, easy to sterilise and it was gentle on my nipples.

I was told by the midwives at the hospital where my son was born that instead of buying expensive sterilising tablets etc, just use 10ml of ordinary bleach in 2 litres of water eg. an icecream container with a lid and that will do just as good a job - just make sure that you make a new solution every 24 hours. I used this for my kids and it seemed to work well ... just a little money saving tip for any really financially stretched new parents out there - lol!

[cobysmummy]

i used an electric pigeon breast pump since Cobys birth and loved it... i had soo much milk i expressed so many times and it didnt hurt a bit! im not sure of the cost as it was a gift but it was great.. you express straight into a bottle and it comes with a teat that you can just express and feed if you wanted to!
i use pigeon brand everything.. their breast pads are great by the way!
good luck with ur pump! :D

[Miss_Vicki]

I was Hoping someone POsted about " Pigeon " brand , Ive read up about this an was hoping they were good Becasue this was the brand i was intending on gettin..

Anyone tryed that "NUK" brand? all i know is its German made :D

[SugarBlossom]

The Medela mini electric is fantastic!!

[razzle]

I bought a Nuk Electric with battery backup and it was great. A bit noisy but that would be my only complaint. I bought mine new but you'd probably be able to get one on ebay...

Click here (http://www.babymall.com.au/nuk/products.htm)

[cath]

Thanks for all the responses. I still haven't got around to buying the pump yet - likely to be next week now - this mothering business is keeping me very, very busy (Paddy is now 11 days old and all I can say is I am so impressed with single mothers - don't know what I would do without my husband).

Anyway - I was tossing up between the Medela Mini Electric or the Nuk (was thinking of the Nuk because Paddy likes the Nuk dummy and thought it might be less confusing to have the same teat on the bottle rather than use a different teat on the Medela -think he would be okay though - he is a really good sucker and works things out pretty well). The noisy aspect of the Nuk sounds a bit annoying though so am wondering if the Medela is noisy - can anyone let me know if it is?

Thanks for the help.

Cath

[tonic0]

I can't remember if mine was the Medela or the Medina - I hired mine from the chemist also for $40 per month and used it for 3 months the whole time.

If it helps (post pregnancy brain and all) it was blue with yellow attachments - it doesn't matter what bottle system you use - I used Avent and just poured the milk into those for my best boy (hubby) who always did the mid am feed. (ditto on the single mother thing)

I fed and expressed at 11pm and my hubby did the 2-3am number and i was up at 5-6am. From day one I had 6-7 hrs sleep a night and I promise you this contributed greatly to my sanity and therefore babys serenity. Hubby is the type to wake and go back to sleep really easily and feeding from the bottle is much quicker than the breast so in our own funny way we worked it out.

Wish you the best at this exciting time - before long you will be experiencing your babys first birthday like me tomorrow - and I just don't see how that can be considering I only had her five minutes ago.

[Pixie]

:D I am going to look into the NUK now.

But at first I was thinking of the Avent ISIS has anyone used or know of anything about that type of pump?

[fhaye]

A very old thread. I just want to add some opinion on suggesting for an alternative electric pump. I've got one that I purchased from SimpleWishes. I love to use them and really gives me the comfort and also the fit of it. It is for the best of us both me and my daughter on getting a hands free breast pump.

I would highly recommend this product for you to use:
http://www.simplewishes.com/product/hands-free-pumping-bra.html

[kashenden]

I swear by the omega purely yours twin electric pump. It is expensive but works awesomely! Plus u can buy silicone attachments for the breast pump if you have smaller nipples so it doesn't hurt. It's pretty quiet too. I used it for 10wks 3-4hrly.

[Lexik]

I use the medela swing and it is fantastic! Very easy to use, no pain whatsoever and very portable :)