Breast Pumps

Can anyone explain the difference between 'hospital grade' breast pumps like the ones you can rent from Annerley and off-the-shelf electric pumps? Are they vastly different in price and effectiveness? I am trying to gauge whether it is affordable (or advisable) to buy a hospital grade pump or if I should just rent one.

I have and Avent elctronic pump and it takes me a good 30mins to do both breasts is faster than the hand pump and portable but i have just ordered the double elctronic Avent pump as i'm hoping it will halve that time. I have just been using a medela hospital double pump and it is great after not pumping for 7hrs it takes about 20mins but when i looked into the price here (s'pore) it wa going to be over $3,000.00 so hence my purcashing of the Avent double pump for $750.00. I am expressing for all my feeds so i wanted it to be as fast as posible i haven't recieved the Avent double pump yet so i'll let you know how it goes but if you are interested in buying a hospital grade one rent it first and se if you like it and it meets your needs.

Thanks Perthites. I think I will definitely rent the hospital grade one first before spending that kind of money. Good luck with the Avent double pump! Let me know how it works out for you.

yes yes yes -hospital grade pumps, like medela symphony or lactina are much more efficient, and I think more comfortable too. In addition, I get more milk with this than I did with the medela electric handheld.


BUT the Medela Pump In Style is considiered to be almost as good, so if you want to buy consider that one.


I rent from Annerley, but there are other places that rent too.


There is a pretty comprehensive thread on this in the Mum and Dads forum...

http://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/forums/momsdads/threads/77311.asp

Crj -- Wow, what a great thread, thanks for posting it. My head is spinning a bit from all the information that I can't relate to yet (since this is my first pregnancy and I have no experience of breastfeeding!) but I can tell it will be very helpful after the baby is born.


More importantly, your advice has prepared me to persevere with BF even if it is tough at the beginning, and convinced me to hire a hospital grade pump right from the start! It sounds like you were very happy with the Medela Lactina. Has anybody tried both the Lactina and the Symphony? Which one is better?

I use the symphony, but I would think they are very similar.


It is my first baby too. The first few weeks were hard for me and nothing was intuitive - if I was not dedicated to breastfeeding, I would have given up. Do persevere, and do get home visits from a midwife - it really helps! Also, the hospital should provide lots of assistance -so ask ask ask and accept all advice (even though lots will contradict, you will find some that work for you).


I can now say, 3 months later, that it finally did all work out, baby eats well now and it is easy.... so sticking with it really paid off!


Also ignoring anyone who was not 110% supportive of breastfeedign helped too!


Now, saying all of that, if for medical or personal reasons you can't breastfeed - don't feel bad, you are not a failure, it just isn't for everyone.

Dear..


When choosing a BP I would keep the following in mind:

1. Do it after you give birth, when you know what you need it for. For example, if you are just going to pump once a day or every now and again, a small either AVENT hand pump or a mini electric MEDELA are usually the most economic, easy to use, cheapest and get enough milk, quickly enough.

However, if you need to increase your milk supply, baby is not with you to suck (if in intensive care), baby is not sucking hard enough or if you intend to pump many times a day, for example if you go to work while breastfeeding, then usually the rented pumps are a better option and quicker. I say this not because they are in actual fact any "better" but rather from experience from the women that they are more quick and sometimes compared with the mini electric pump they have a softer suck but give more milk, and compared with the AVENT hand pump they are less hard work and also give more milk.

Again, this could actually be the other way round, funnily enough, since some women do actually find the softest, smallest, simplest suck give the best result! This is also why it is usually good to wait until you give birth and then decide what to do. We can sometimes let people try the pump in our office, to choose what suits best.


Regarding cost, just from memory, I think you are looking at something like this:


Medela mini electric: around 800 HKD

AVENT hand pump: around 300 - 500 HKD

Renting a MEDELA lactina (blue hospital grade): around 500 HKD per month, less if you do it for longer periods, plus you pay around 400 HKD for a pump set you must buy


Renting a MEDELA Symphony (computer version and newer style than lactina): around 800 HKD per month, less if you do for longer and also a cost of a pump set you must buy.


So looking at cost, renting is definately quite expensive in comparison to buying the smaller types, so this is why I would for sure try and determine your needs first. Feel free to call me if you are still confused.


Lastly, buying a hospital grade pump is never really affordable for anyone, I think it is around 10K for a lactina and 25K for the symphony, - so better do a whole lot of pumping for that!


HOpe this helps,

Hulda

Thank you Hulda! Yes, you are right-- there is no real way of knowing what works best until I get an idea of what my supply / my baby's demand is like. I guess in the meantime all I can do is try and inform myself about breastfeeding as much as possible!

Thanks Ruth, yes, I am planning to attend some LLL meetings... I think they are at the end of a cycle at the moment, but I am keeping an eye out for the next lot of meetings.

I have both the Medela Pump In Style (double electric) and the Avent Isis (manual, single) - both are very good. If you are going back to work the first is better, if it's just for occasional use I would go for the second.


There's also something called Whisper Wear (?) which you can put under your clothes - looks itneresting. There's a website if you have a look.

Hi i said i get back to you all when i recieved my Avent double pump is brillant, it has exceded my expectations, i went 6 hours without pumping last night and it took 10mins to pump my breasts empty. It's really comfortable and very quiet. Also it come in a great travel bag and parts to use manually if your travelling. I ordered mine of the Aussie Avent website and spoke to a lady there called Michelle who has been Very Very helpful. It cost me $750.00 (Aussie dollars)with shipping but as i'm feeding my baby expressed milk i'm using it thru out the day and night. It's been worth every dollar! I used an older (2-3yrs) medela hospital style double pump recently and the Avent is much better.

If anybody is looking for the hospital grade Medela electric double breast pumps they can be rented from the physiotherapy clinic in Hutchison House, Central: $1000 for 3 months. Respiration monitors are also available.


Call 25213531 for more details.