manual breast pump?

[6thstreet]

I will be a first-time mom and stay at home for at least a year, planning to exclusively breast feed.  One of our midwives recommended that everyone needs a breast pump. The good electric ones are so expensive, I hate to pay that since I will only be away from the baby or want to use bottled breast milk occasionally.  I would like to try a medela manual pump, but others have told me that manual pumps are so time consuming they are just not worth using. Any recommendations?

[Snapdragon]

I think just wait and see if you even need one. If you are a sahm you may not need one. I am using one now w- my 17 m.o son only cause I got into some issues later in the breastfeeding age- just in the past few months- but I never used one for the first 14 or 15 months. When I did start using one I got the manual one and I found it to be ineffective- it did no more than just sueezing the milk out by hand. I then rented a medela electric pump from the hospital- many hospitals rent them- and it works great. But I don't think it is something you need if you will be a sahm- at least not at first! And if you do you can alsways get one when you need it.

[2xy]

Originally Posted by Snapdragon 

I think just wait and see if you even need one. If you are a sahm you may not need one. I am using one now w- my 17 m.o son only cause I got into some issues later in the breastfeeding age- just in the past few months- but I never used one for the first 14 or 15 months. When I did start using one I got the manual one and I found it to be ineffective- it did no more than just sueezing the milk out by hand.

When DS1 was born, I used the huge pump on the L&D ward of the hospital where I worked.

But when DS2 was born, I ended up hand-expressed milk at work. I found it to be more effective (faster and gentler) than a pump, and with few things to clean and haul back and forth to work every day. YMMV.

[LaughingHyena]

I was planning on staying home with DD and was not expecting to need to express. I did check out a couple of local stores and found they sold the avent isis manual which seemed OK. Knowing I could get one pretty quickly if I needed to I decided not to bother before she was born.

In the event she was premmie and in the NICU for a couple of weeks so on my way home we called in at the store for the pump. I could use the hospital pumps when I was there but they had no spare rentals so this got me through the night.

It was a little hard on the wrists if I was using it for a long time, but I found it OK and got a similar amount to the electric (though I would not have wanted to use it full time in that situation). I also got the hang of hand expressing pretty quickly.

So my advice would be have a look what your local stores stock, then you can go/send someone else if you need one. For me with most baby stuff I was better off only getting things when needed and trying to keep the just in case stuff to a minimum.