Breast Pumps

I seem to have acquired a very intimate knowledge of breast pumps.  I spent the first 2 months of Munchkin's life pumping many times a day since he was in the hospital and was fed through a tube in his nose.

These days I don't really pump except when I've been trying to get him to take a bottle which I've had very little luck with.  I will probably pump a bit for his cereal when he starts that but other than that I don't need to pump much now since he won't take a bottle.

So I have had experience with 5 (yes 5) different breast pumps as follows:

Breast Pump @ Sick Kids

Ameda Hospital Grade

Medela Consumer Pump

Medela Mini Electric

Medela Symphony (Hospital Grade)

Let me say first off, pumping is not the most fun experience on the planet.  My poor boobs were super sore and it took awhile to get used to it all.   It's probably not like that so much if you are only doing it occasionally.  And now on to my thoughts.

The best pump (go figure) was the retro looking one at Sick Kids.  But I hope that none of my readers ever have to experience that.  So that will be all I have to say on that pump.

Hospital Grade

For the hospital grade ones (which you can rent), I liked the Ameda the best.  It was the most similar to the one at Sick Kids and I felt did the best job of getting out the milk.  Also, the way their tubing system works, no milk ever gets into the tubes leading to the pump itself which can get gross in my opinion.  If you should ever have need of a pump for a few weeks because of a issue (like being in the hospital) I would recommend renting one from the hospital rather than buying one of the hospital grade ones.  If you know you are going to be doing a lot of pumping anyway, I would suggest getting one of the consumer models.  Sick Kids rents the Ameda ones and  Mount Sinai rents the Medela ones.

The Symphony was fine, I just liked the Ameda better.

Consumer Ones

The only one I've used has been this one Medela Consumer Pump.  It has done a reasonably good job.  It's not as powerful as the hospital grade ones so I always kind of felt that it hasn't done as good a job as the hospital grade ones.  That being said, it did a perfectly good job.  I do think though that if I were buying one to use at home (the Medela was very kindly loaned to us by friends), I would most likely get the Ameda consumer model based on the experience with the hospital grade.

The Medela Mini Electric.  I just got this one.  It was a steal at a Garage Sale at my cottage for $20.  I couldn't pass it up.   The person had only used it once.  She prefers the manual pumps.  I've only used it a couple of times.  But it does an ok. job.  If I was doing a lot of pumping I don't think I would want to depend on it.  It is a one boob at a time and not as powerful.  The pros though...Super portable and it can run on batteries.  I would probably get the Swing or Freestyle if i was buying one new though.  They seem just as portable and a little more powerful.

So there you go.  All I know about breast pumps.  It really is all about what suits your needs and pocketbook.  They can be very expensive.