We get a lot of enquries from pregnant mothers that are researching breast pumps. The whole expressing thing certainly does get confusing, so we thought I would answer a few comment questions here.
These are based on questions that a lady just asked this morning.
She said “I am due in a few months time and am starting to explore breast pumps and bottles now. I am returning to work when baby will be 7 months old, and will be wanting to continue giving bub’s as much breast milk as possible, fully if I can. Obviously the aim is to breastfeed completely, but I am aware this may not be a possibility and there is no way of knowing till she is here. So from day one we will be wanting to get her used to breast and bottle so that her Dad can also feed her. This means expressing and the variety out there is baffling!
Do you advise waiting till I know I can breast feed? Or getting something anyway? What do people normally do?
In terms of what kind of pump, what do you suggest? I estimate in the first 7 months I will be expressing at least 1-2 times per day just so that we can freeze and my husband can feed to, and to eleviate any extra. ”
Here are a few of our thoughts…..
We think it’s a really good idea to get your baby used to drinking from a bottle, it relieves some of the ties/pressure on you and its nice for Dads too. And it can often make things a little easier when you do come to wean your baby onto a bottle later.
Most people, if they know that they want to introduce a bottle for their baby, or know that they’ll be returning to work, they usually buy a breast pump in advance. The people that leave it to the last minute are the mothers that plan to breastfeed but need a pump urgently to relieve engorgement etc.
The type of breast pump that you choose really depends on how often you’ll plan on using it. A manual breast pump is for occasional use, such as once per week. The Medela Mini Electric is for light use – about once or twice per day. If you use this pump any more than that per day, the warranty will be void as the pump won’t withstand high use. If you need to express more than twice per day, I would recommend the Swing breast pump. If you are expressing ALL of baby’s milk – then Free Style breast pump.
The other thing that a lot of people forge to consider is where you will be using your breast pump when you are at work. The mini electric is very loud, wheras the Swing is really quiet. (We’ve done some demo and sound videos on the product pages that you can check out)
