Breast Pumps

It's time for our collected wisdom.

Linda writes:

Hey, have you done any posts about the best breast pump?  I couldn't find anything when I poked around.  Last time I rented a fancy hospital pump because I wasn't sure how long I could nurse twins.  This time I'm fairly confident I can nurse one baby for a year+ so it makes more sense to buy a pump for $300 than rent a pump for $50/month.

First of all, let me say "Dude!" to Linda and all other moms of twins (or triplets!) who nursed at all. That learning curve must have been nightmarish. Now on to breast pumps.

All I have personal experience with is the Avent Isis, and I highly recommend it if you only need to pump once a day or less. It's a hand pump, yes, but the petal action is so good that you don't have to give yourself carpal tunnel pumping it. Plus their customer service is awesome. A part broke on mine, and they overnighted a replacement part cheerfully at no cost. Then, 3 years later, I couldn't find one of the parts (same pump), and they overnighted the replacement part cheerfully at no cost. The only thing to know about the Isis is that if you put that little round white rubber disk in the wrong way you won't get any suction. So if you have no suction, flip the white rubber disk and see if that fixes it (the asterisk striations should face in toward the horn of the pump).

I saw a new, double-barrelled, electric Isis in a store a few weeks ago. Does anyone have any experience with it?

Everyone loves the Medela Pump In Style, so I'm guessing a lot of you do, too.

I know some of you are true pumping champs, so share your experience. What pump do you have? Do you like it? Would you buy it again? Why or why not? Any quirks people should know about? Don't forget to tell us how often you pump.

(Oh, and don't be afraid to say negative things if you had a bad experience, because you'll be saving someone from wasting money on a bad pump.)

Comments

[bec 37]

I am so glad to see people hyping the Ameda Purely Yours. When I was pumping and looked at discussion boards and the like it seemed like the PIS was always coming out on top, and I didn't get that, because I actually ended up with one of each and much preferred the Ameda pump.

Please correct me if anything has changed--I know that pumps are improved upon over time--but in my experience, the PIS has one huge drawback. It is possible that as you pump, you suddenly find that milk is going into the tubes. If this happens, you must stop pumping immediately even if you just started and take everything apart and clean it. The design of the PY is such that this never happens.

Best of luck!

[Carla Hinkle]

I was very happy with the PIS Advanced (backpack) for pumping about 5-6 times/week with my first (part-time job and evenings out). With my second it is about the same, maybe a little less pumping, and I'm still happy. PIS is still going strong.

I also have a home-made "hands free" bra, which is basically an old sports bra with small holes cut for the horns.

But I'll be damned if that "free expressions" thing isn't interesting. I am very tempted to buy one (though if I could see the pictures better I bet I could rig one up myself!).

[mercybuttercup]

I was sent home with a hospital-grade pump that did not work for me at all. If my son hadn't been a genius breastfeeder on his own (he really was - the nurses kept saying he should give lessons to other babies), I would've probably thought I couldn't produce based on that. I bought an Isis and it worked beautifully (and put almost no stress on my carpal tunnel/tendonitis-havin' arms).

I mention this in the unlikely event that anyone else is the particular brand of weird I am.

[Vanessa]

I have a PIS and an Isis manual - and I much prefer the Isis. I get about the same amount of milk pumping one side with the Isis as I do pumping both sides with the PIS. I think the issue is the amount of time the suction lasts. The PIS cycles faster or slower, but never just holds the suction steady. With the Avent, you hold the handle down and the milk just flows.

[Jennifer]

I started pumping when my daughter was about 3 months old when I went back to work and pumped at work about 3x a day until she was 11 months. I had the Ameda Purely Yours and would recommend it. Mine came with a backpack so it was easy to carry around. Also, Avent bottles fit onto the ends of the pumps, so I could pump directly into bottles.

[Sue]

Just wanted to make a practical suggestion for pumping for twins in the first three months when things were quite difficult with latching, taking forever to nurse, and not being able to nurse in tandem yet.

My main concern with pumping with twins was the connection between pumping time and milk composition. It was weird, but I totally noticed that if one of my babies got a bottle of expressed milk, he/she stayed full a lot longer than the one that breastfed. I don't think it was the amount of milk, but rather the fact that I had been told to pump after feeding. If you do this, you are training you boobs to produce more milk, but also, I think the boobs put out more hindmilk into the pumped stuff because it's coming out last. So when I would alternate nursing with pumping (e.g. 9:00 a.m. feed-Baby A nurses for a LONG time while Baby B gets a bottle and is done in 10 minutes), Baby A would get hungrier a lot sooner, and Baby B would stay sleeping for at least half an hour more before needing food.

To remedy this, you might need to pump a bit before nursing to remove some of the foremilk, then nurse, then pump a bit more. It should even out as your babies get better at nursing and you are pumping less frequently. But I was really mystified at first as to why it never failed that the nursed baby would get hungrier much fast even after nursing so long. Has anyone else ever found this kind of situation in the early days of breastfeeding/pumping??

As for being some kind of lactation queen for nursing twins, I think it really is a case of demand and supply. If you put two suckers on you, your boobs will kick up production to match the demand. It does have a bit of a lag though, so don't give up if your babies still seem hungry...just feed more frequently to tell your body to get going with the production.

One last thing...did anyone else imagine in the wee hours of the morning while pumping that the sounds your pump was making started to sound like words??? Okay, maybe I'm strange, but my pump totally sounded like a 12-year-old Korean schoolgirl saying "TINY ROOM, TINY ROOM" over and over and over....

[O]

One more for the Ameda Purely Yours. Used several times a day with Boy1, who was a lousy BFer for a loooong time. Used much less with Boy2, who never ever ever even once took a bottle, but I used it to get my production up and then defrosted for cereal once he was 6 months old.

And a plug for the microwave sterilizer bags, which came out somewhere between Boys 1 & 2. Somehow, for me, it was much easier to throw the parts with 2 oz of water in the envelope in my microwave than it was to boil a pot. Go figure. But I know my stuff was sterilized much more often once that product hit the market.

[stacylane]

I second Crystal's comment about making sure the baby will actually take a bottle before spending a million bucks on pump stuff.

I did the same thing she did. I went out and got a swank Medela Pump In Style with all the bells and whistles. But 4 months and many, many, many barely-used bottle/nipple combinations later...it's been mostly a giant waste of money.

Of course, this only applies if you're not going back to work. If you are going back to work, the baby is going to HAVE to learn to like the bottle sooner or later, so an expensive pump like the PIS is totally worth it.

But if you're staying at home or unsure if you'll do any heavy-duty pumping...I'd suggest getting a nice manual pump (like the Avent Isis). Even if you end up having to buy an electric pump later for whatever reason, manuals are still good to have on hand for traveling or middle-of-the-night expressing, or just to relieve engorgement.

[Meegan]

Medela Pump In Style is the Bugaboo Stroller of breastpumps. Meaning, it rocks but it's pricey. I totally agree with the woman who bought hers on Ebay. I'm borrowing one from a friend. It's at least 4 or 5 years old and has been used by several other friends as well. Still works great. I've had to order a couple spare parts myself. And I did buy ALL new parts (tubing, etc.) at the hospital. I "purchased" them directly from the hospital and my insurance paid for them. Now I wonder if they would have paid for an actual breastpump, as someone else said. Hmmm. Maybe I'll try that for Baby #2 if my friend needs her pump back!

[Jennifer]

I've been finished pumping for several months now but loved my Medela Pump in Style Advanced. What I really wanted to share in this post, though, was this clip from NPR that I remember hearing when I was still pumping 3 times a day (A Sound Clip about a breast pump, forward to 1 minute 58 seconds. It's only a short snip of the whole audio file, but it brings back lots of memories if you've finished pumping!): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5472117

[sisco]

I found that pumping with a used PIS did not work well enough to keep my supply up. I went back to work when my daughter was 9 weeks and pumped three times at work, bf while at home, plus woke up in the middle of the night to pump again with the ISIS I kept at home. For six months. Like squeezing water from a stone, my friends. I wondered, while consuming vast quantities of fenugreek, if a NEW PIS or hospital pump would have worked better for someone like me, with supply issues.

[Maura]

I have nothing useful to add to the pump comments, they've all been said.

BUT

Sue,
I used to listen to my PIS distinctly say to me, over and over, "Pantalones, Pantalones, Pantalones." Don't know why, but evidently it was a Mexican pump, and it needed some pants!

[Ireps]

Ha! Maura yes! I was wondering if anyone else had could hear their PIS saying kaboosh, kabooosh, kaboooooska.

[coffeemama]

I have no new brands to add to the list - 30-weeker preemie who never latched, successfully started with hospital grade, moved to PIS (and was very glad to double pump!), also had an Isis which worked well.

But I wanted to pass along something I didn't just figure out for WAY too long - if I was going to be away from home for more than, say, 3-4 hours, I needed to bring a pump with me. You're thinking, no kidding... But in the beginning I didn't grasp that I could leave the plug-in hospital grade (pre-PIS) at home and just get a manual (or, really, battery-op) pump to carry with me. Pumping in a ladies' room was annoying and felt like forever, but was still MUCH better than the one day out when I was panicking to get back to the pump! LOL

Truly, new mommy brain. Hopefully sharing this will save somebody, somewhere, the frustration I faced in trying to figrue out where I was going to plug in a pump!!

[amy]

I heart Fran. She's right. Whatever we can do for our babies counts and should be acknowledged.

I was lucky that I responded well to a pump, but many women don't get much with a pump, even if they do well with a nursing baby. So, mad shout out to *all* the parents feeding their babies, however they do it. :D

[Kristina]

Hello. My daughter will be 1 year on Friday and I EP for 11.5 months before stopping. I never wanted to breastfeed but I always knew that I was going to pump. While pregnant I did a TON of research and decided that, along with what I experienced first hand, taught me the following:

Hospital Grade Pumps and Professional Grade Pumps are not the same. Professional pumps are not meant to endure the kind of usage that a EP mom needs. The motors in a professional pump are not heavy duty. Professional pumps cost $300 but a Hospital Grade will cost a lot more. It is because the motors are different.

In addition, they can be a little painful on the nipples when using them that often.

I rented a Hospital Grade Lactina AND I bought a PIS Advanced in the Backpack. During the first 6-8 weeks of pumping it is so important to get the best suction possible. The Lactina helped me build my supply and the frequent pumping did not result in painful nipples. I swear by my HG Lactina. I know that if I did not have a good pump, I would have quit EPing early on.

At home I used my Lactina at all times. But, when I was visiting or at work I used my PIS Advanced. When my Lactina broke and I had to wait to get it fixed, I relies on my PIS and after pumping 8-12 times a day, my nipples were sore (and that was on low suction and medium speed). The hurt so badly that I stopped pumping for a while.

Ok, to end my novel, if you are pumping only every now and then, PIS ADVANCED would be a great way to go. But if you want to pump more often, I would stick with renting.

*BTW- the PIS is completely detachable from the backpack. When I went to work, I removed it from the backpack (there is a nice plack case velcroed to the inside of the back which comes out too) and was able to toss that into my tote bag.

Good Luck

[arb]

The Lansinoh freezer bags are much easier to use than the Medela ones in my opinion: they use double Ziploc-type zippers rather than twist-ties.

I was lucky to get a hand-me-down PiS from a close friend. I also had a Purely Yours, 7+ years old, up in the attic—passed down by a family member who assumed (correctly) that we would try to have children soon. The PY confused me and it was kind of old so I ignored it and lugged the (heavy) PiS back and forth from home to work for nearly a year. One day I decided to dust off the PY—ordered a new "hygenikit" (basically a set of horns, tubing, valves, and bottles) plus some extra valves, and tried it out. It worked fine. It was kinda loud so I decided to make it my "home" pump and left my PiS at work! I wish I had thought of that much, much sooner. I hated lugging the Medela to work every day.

The Easy Expressions bustier is worth the money. It keeps the horns very firmly in place--no leakage. This is good because breastmilk leaves a grease stain on clothes.

[liz]

I'm not reading all the comments, just want to ditto the double-pump hands-free attachments. They saved my sanity when I was pumping exclusively for MM for nine months (using Medela Pump-in-style)

[Caroline]

I heart Fran, too.

I also had terrible supply issues, took me months (years?) to make peace with the fact that I did not have a remotely exclusively breastfed child.

The Isis was all wrong for me and my slim output. I rented a Medela Symphony (?), it at least got a bit.

And a friend who was pumping for me (and FedExing across the country - I know, I'm nuts) switched from her old PIS to a rental Symphony and said it made a world of difference.

I was SO grossed out by the idea of renting a breast pump until I realized that you're essentially renting a motor, everything that touches milk is yours and yours alone. I've shared that with other, equally grossed out new moms who have been equally relieved.

[lydia]

If the hospital pump you rented last time was the Medela Lactina, and you still have the kit of parts that you had to buy...then the piston by itself makes a pretty good hand pump. I'm using that this time and I actually like it a lot better than the Medela single electric (NOISY!!!).

[giddy]

Here's another vote for the Ameda Purely Yours. I bought mine in 2000, used it for 2 of my own kids, friends used for 3 kids in between my 2, and a 6th person is using it now. I pumped for over 9 months both times, at least twice a day; not sure of the use for other folks, but it's still working so I would say it has good reliability!

At the time I bought it simply because it was a better deal than the Medela (>$50 cheaper). But I also discovered that the way it was constructed, it was virtually impossible to get milk in the tubes, so keeping it clean was a lot easier than what I heard from Medela PIS-owning friends. (To the point where I continue to be dumbfounded about advice about not sharing breast pumps--why on earth would that be an issue?!) Maybe the Medela design has been improved....but if not, I would highly recommend the Ameda!!!

[kelbelfel]

I bought a used Lactina select on eBay and used it for 14 months. It was fabulous and they are frequently available used. I think I paid about $300 plus had to buy the kit. I've loaned it to two more friends who have used and loved it, and I have another kiddo on the way, so I am expecting to have yet another long and meaningful love affair with it.

I travel a lot for work, and that pump accompanied me to Ireland, China, Mexico, Chicago, and Las Vegas that year. The only caveat I can give you is that it's not easily recognizable as a breast pump among TSA agents - more than once going through airport security, I had to yell back to the person at the X-Ray monitor "It's a breast pump!" They must be used to seeing the pump in style or something. :-)

Good luck!
-Kelly

[kelbelfel]

Sorry to double-post - the reason i LOVED The Lactina is that it truly SUCKS. :-) I could double pump at once and be done in <10 minutes. I haven't used the PIS but my friend who has my Lactina now had used a PIS before and said this is an order of magnitude better.

[Jennifer]

Coming back to laugh at the comments on their PIS talking to them. I think mine is saying "Nipple, Nipple, Nipple".

[pnuts mama]

my PIS used to talk to me, too! i bought it to use 1-2x a day just so i could have milk for her dad to give her when i was out or if we were leaving her with a sitter. i agree that sometimes it is harder to find a bottle/nipple combo that the baby will like- that was so frustrating, pnut hardly ever took a bottle, esp. if the source was in the house. my best tip for warming up a bottle of BM is to boil water and pour it 1/2 way into a small thermos, toss in bag. by the time you need it, the water is no longer that hot but still hot enough to warm it up quickly.

i originally had a hand pump, but between my poor letdown and the sheer pain it caused me to get like, three paltry drops i decided to go with the PIS, which i got through my hospital lactation consultant, for less than retail. the first time i tried the PIS i filled up a bottle no problem and never looked back. i loved that thing. also, check to see if your insurance covers part of it, have your ped write a note that your baby needs BM for medical reasons.

also for ikate, and anyone else- you can always use your extra unused milk with cereal for your baby now that they are staring solids- it may make it easier for the baby to transition with a familiar taste. kellymom has timetables for how long you can refridgerate/freeze human milk. good luck!

[Julia]

Holy cow, that's a lot of comments. I don't have time to read them all, but wanted to throw in my experience.

Never ever got the Medela to work for me. Never. The ISIS was a freakin' godsend.

[Rayne of Terror]

I started with a Medela battery pump and it was awful. I had a much better response just using my hands. It took a long time before I broke down and spent the money on a PIS Advanced and it worked okay for occassional use. I would not have used it for daily pumping. I see in the comments above perhaps I had the wrong horn size -- I had no idea they were sized.

[Marketing Mommy]

Yet another vote for the Ameda Purely Yours. Loved that it weighs less than half as much as the PIS and isn't as loud (oh, and it's cheaper!). I used spare bottles from Evenflo and Medela--any brand screwed on fine except for Avent. In a pinch, I'd even rubberband storage bags to the horns! Definitely get the extra parts (especially valves).

[Florabora]

From the start I've had really bad supply issues. I was only able to start producing 2 weeks after birth by using the rental Medela Classic (the heavy duty 30 lb one). I pumped for 100 minutes a day (basically after every feeding 15 mins or so), took fenugreek, drank mother's milk tea, and took motillium.

I switched over to the PIS advanced after 6 weeks of that schedule - and it worked well, but not as well as the hospital grade pump.

I agree with previous posters about checking in with your lactation consultant - she was able to determine that I needed the bigger breast shields and gave me extra supplies/pumping parts for free.

I purchased my pump from a small store dedicated to breastfeeding - and the service I got there was worth the higher price for the pump. Something to consider, if you're in the market for a pump. They were able to answer all of my questions.

When pumping at work, I didn't have access to a microwave/source of water, so I used the Medela breast pump wipes after pumping and then clean them at home by hand.

[Monica]

I have an Ameda Purely Yours as well but have not had such good luck. Baby is 4 months old and I'm on my 3rd pump. They do cover it under warranty and have shipped me new ones quickly each time, however that wasn't a lot of help when it died while I was travelling on a long holiday weekend. If I had it to do over, I would by a Medela since you can get all the extra parts at Target rather than having to order online.

[Melanie]

I've got the Medela Pump in Style, and it's still going strong on baby number three! I pumped while working, both in the office and on the road. Let me just tell you that pumping in the back seat of my car in a hot Mississippi parking lot with a scarf hanging in the window for a *little* privacy is no fun at all! I highly recommend the Pump in Style. The only problem I have had was the electrical cord fraying at the base of the plug, because I wound the cord too tightly during baby number one's nursing months. But the replacement part was readily available at a baby retail store.

[Jen]

I used the Whittlestone and the Ameda Purely Yours. I originally bought the Whittlestone because I heard it was not so hard on your nipples (it uses a massaging action rather than suction) and I was afraid of pain. It was okay, but I think it contributed to my supply going down. So I decided to get another pump and did HOURS of research on the web. I eventually decided to go with the Ameda because the reveiws I read said it was basically as good as the Medela, but much cheaper. I bought it NIB on Ebay for about $100 and it worked really well.

You own my respect and gratitude. Thanks to your hard labour and persistance we have a magnificent web and together with other standards an easy to use enviroment. Thank you!

[Ameda Ultra]

Thank you for this one once again.

Nicole

[Medela symphony]

I think one of the bests are from Medela, I have mothers in my society using Medela pumps. I would recommend them.

[hands free pumping bra]

Thanks for those tips regarding the use of breast pumps. I've been awaiting for the time of my daughter to be born and looking for some resources that I could get on things I need to know regarding breast pump.

My mother give me an electric pumping bra to use and I want to have more knowledge to use the pumping bra. Thanks for your help.

[generic viagra]

Medela Pump In Style - I had overactive letdown and a baby who preferred bottles, so I pumped as much as 6x per day - every 3 hours or so for quite some time. Very reliable! I bought it from a local breastpumping/nursing store (The Pump Station in Santa Monica CA - I tell you these women deserve to make millions what with all the care and support they provide to nursing moms. One time a part broke on the pump - due to a curious baby, not becase overuse made it break - and they invited me in to use one of their pumps while someone else fixed mine. On site. LOVE them).