I'm totally clueless about breastfeeding and studying like mad! Thanks
Just another item I need to think of buying as we wait for our little one due in just a couple of weeks. I'd like to go back to part-time work after a few months and was wondering what your recommendation might be. Will a manual produce enough milk without carpal tunnel syndrome? What brand do you prefer?
I used an Avent Electric pump and I would definitely get an electric over manual purely because it's time consuming and bloody hard work.
I thought pumping would be dead easy but it's just not, it takes ages to even get the smallest amount out and it's like gold dust. I was mortified when my husband threw some away by mistake. :eek
The other thing I thought was that my little girl would take it easily but no - she was having none of it so over a 6 month period we have probably bottle fed her 4 times. I didn't have to go back to work though so there was really no incentive to get her to latch on properly. But she hated it so much that I just stuck to breastfeeding her.
I think maybe rent one first, I wish I had as I would have realised there was no point in buying. I think the Medela electric ones get the best reviews having talked to friends about them.
I had to use a hand pump with my first born, it was soul destroyingly hard. Took forever to get enough milk for a feed, plus I found there wasn't enough stimulation to encourage the glands to produce more milk, I only managed to keep it up for six weeks.
My daughter-in-law is using an electrical one for her new baby and takes about ten minutes to fill a 180ml bottle.
Your doctor or mid-wife should have a list of places you can rent them from, it's probably not worth buying one.
Thanks for the advice I was leaning towards electric and had no idea I could even rent one to see if it's a good fit - literally!
I'd like to BF for at least 6 months and there's no pressing financial reason to go back to work except that we want to buy a house and my extra income can help us get what we want and save my sanity.....although that could change and I could actually enjoy staying at home longer
Well, to be honest it depends on your milk supply/let down reflex more than anything - I had a really fast flow so for me a manual pump was perfectly fine - I had an Avent Isis one and never had trouble pumping enough milk. Other women find it hard to get enough with a manual - or find it doesn't stimulate the let down. Others have trouble with an electric, and others cannot express at all. It is also possible to express milk by hand without a pump at all .... (just try not to think of images of cows!!) basically using a bowl and leaning over it and well.... massaging and squeezing.... some women have a lot of success this way and it cuts out having to wash/sterilise a pump.
To be honest this is one item I'd recommend waiting until after you've had the baby and have been BFing for a few weeks to see how it goes for you.
You may even decide that for going back to work formula is a better option - a lot of women find it difficult to keep going with having to express while at work (not saying that they shouldn't do just that, but just speaking from experience how hard that is to pop out regularly in the day and pump milk.)
The other reason not to buy yet is that breastfeeding may not work for you or your newborn. I hope it does, and I am not trying to be a voice of doom but there is no guarantee that it will work.
My best friend thought she would be exclusively breastfeeding for 6 months but got an infection after about 2 months and her little boy had to go onto formula.
There must be loads of women who have bought pumps and not actually used them more than a handful of times...
You can normally rent electric pumps in any large chemists (here in Suisse Romande anyway). I would wait until your little one arrives, and see how you take to breastfeeding - there is plenty of time to get a pump. Some people can pump tons easily, others (like myself) have to train their boobs to recognize that the pump wants them to release milk! Seriously, its all in the mind. Your baby is the most efficient at getting the milk out. An electric pump is the next best thing, but it might take a bit of practice. Don't be put off if you don't get gallons first time round. Hope this helps!
For my first baby I used the Avent Electronic pump ( it comes with a little manual pump attachment too). It hurt me a bit so for my second baby I bought the Medela electronic pump. The difference between the two was phenomenal! Medela was much better and didn't hurt at all.
My health insurance paid around sFr 400 towards a breast pump so it might be worthwhile to check and see if yours will to as the Medela cost about sFr 600.
Renting is a good option too but I found it cheaper to just buy one.
OT advice..
If you are able to breastfeed, I'd recommend feeding only from the breast for the 3 months and then introduce the bottle with expressed milk for 1 feed per day after that. This will help your baby get used to sucking from a bottle.
All really great advice ladies - thanks! Interesting that it could be covered by insurance. I'll definitely have to check into that.
Guess I'm nervously trying to overprepare for everything but you're right about waiting since I won't know about my milk supply and how my baby will take to it. Good thing she's coming during the holiday season so I can get lots of help from hubby and his family while I focus on getting the BF going. Plus, I can't stand snow so I doubt baby and I will be parted much for at least a month
The very first time I ever expressed, I had the milk on the counter in the kitchen in the bottles while I was preparing the bags to pour it into and freeze it. I was being over careful and whenever I do that I mess up.. True as living nuts, I knocked both of the bottles over! I was so disappointed
Oh no Meisie! How awful I've had a few nightmares of our baby starving because I couldn't get enough milk out! Do you think it's a good idea to buy some formula and bottles beforehand in case it's an epic fail for me? Or is this just paranoia??
Hi there!
First of all congrats to you on your new bundle of joy
I have experience with both electric and hand pumps. The electric ones reqire less 'manual work' while expressing, but I found them just as time-consuming/annoying with plugging them in and transporting them to and in the office.
I would recommend the AVENT hand pump. I had one given to me (it had done service for two babies already) and it was still going strong. The key is technique:
Relax, drink lots (chamomile tea stimulates milk production. Caffeine etc hinders it). Warm your hands and the pump cup thing if you need to. Position the cup correctly over your breast with the nipple in the centre. Let gravity help - Sit and lean forward so your breast 'hangs' in to the cup (Sounds graceful, I know ) Adjust the position of, and pressure applied to, the cup to get a good seal. Lightly pump a few times to encourage your let down reflex. At home you can use another method to get the milk flowing - You will need to experiment with this yourself. If you have a hubby / partner at home, maybe they would help here. The first 100-150 mls come out the fastest. Each time you pump the handle you'll probably get 20-30 mls (1 ounce) of milk and see dozens of super fine streams coming from your nipple. This first part is the 'foremilk'. The milk will start to flow more slowly, but don't stop here - Now the rich fatty 'hindmilk' comes. If needed, place a few drops of sunflower seed oil on the exposed part of your breast to massage the milk out. You'll feel where the milk is and you can concentrate on massaging those places. Almond oil is good too but it actually has less vitamin E and is FAR more expensive than sunflower seed oil. I used the supermarket stuff in the 1L bottles. Still leaning forward massage your breast in firm (but not painful) strokes towards your nipple. The milk will flow more quickly again. Keep going, massaging every part of your breast, until milk only drops out like from an eyedropper. To encourage more milk production keep massaging as long as you can, even if only little drops come out. Your baby will be far more efficient at sucking than any hand or electric pump. Transfer your milk in to a sealable glass bottle (I used a recycled glass juice bottle) and pop it in your lunch room fridge. I put it in to an opaque bag so it wasn't so obvious . When I was expressing at work, the time taken from leaving my desk to the time I returned was 30mins. In Switzerland this is counted as paid time in the first year that you breastfeed. I had a first aid room to go to, but a small meeting room with a sign on the door would work too. Take a couple of tissues with you to dab your nipples dry . I washed the pump out in the ladies bathroom.
The same technique with massaging and hand pumping works well if you get blocked milk ducts, where a lump develops on your breast. Just take your hand pump in to the shower with you and let water (as hot as you can stand, without it being uncomfortable,) flow over your breast while pumping. Oil makes it easier and more comfortable to massage under water without aggravating your skin. You can then keep the extra milk you expressed and freeze it. I would avoid storing milk too long though. They say it's good for 6mths in the freezer, but milk you produce for your 1 week old is not necessarily suitable as a main meal for a 4 month old. But it's your call .
Hope this helps and all the best to you and your little one
Puddy
Yes, recommend renting one from the pharmacy. You still have to the buy the attachment pieces, but everything was covered, or at least mostly/partially reimbursed by insurance.
Whether is works for you or your child is another issue, at least you wouldn't have paid a lot for something you may never use. I would not recommend pumping til at least a few months old, then it is a bit easier all around.
I know! I was so agrivated with myself for doing that!
I personally think its a very good idea. Actually, I take back my previous post.. (sorry, mom-brain on the loose again). I introduced the expressed milk bottle feed at 6 weeks and replaced the expressed milk with formula at 3 months. This way, I got the baby used to the bottle and then at 3 months, got the baby used to formula (I started off with 3/4 breast milk to 1/4 formula for 3 days, then 1/2 breast milk to 1/2 formula for 3 days, then 1/4 breast milk to 3/4 formula for 3 days and then 100% formula).
Oh nooooo . That would be soul destroying!
What was difficult for me was that my hubby would take all my bottles of milk out of the freezer for the day he was at home looking after our daughter...and when I got home leftovers had been sitting out on the bench all day and have to be thrown out
Puddy
I had a medela mini and the swing alas due to many issues I wasn't able to bf and had to switch for formula not through want of trying... hence buying the pumps as initial thought it was a latching issue so was expressing to top up but it wasn't that.
Anyways... both the pumps were great the mini took longer though and was noiser but it was cheaper to buy and the medela swing I brought and was good milk was a lot quicker for me and good to keep for the next baby (incase you were having more) as easy to buy the new plastic replacement items such as tubes, valves, bottles and the funnel (anything the milk touches) and the replacement parts don't cost a lot. If you want a top grade pump you could rent the double medela one is supposed to be great.
I think like a lot of baby things what suits one doesn't always suit another, bottle choices, nappies etc all my boys had different brands that suited them better so a lot of trial and error even on no3!
Thanks puddycat for all the great pointers! My biggest hurdle may simply be my nerves - and horrifying thoughts of our baby girl starving!
I really appreciate the step-by-step
Lots of great advice. The reality is, everyone is different and certainly as to the manual/electric debate, it will depend on you. So whilst it's a good idea to wait a few months, you may still go out, buy something and find it is totally the wrong product for you.
Manual just hurt me like hell! I then moved onto a (second hand) Medula double pump and had much more success (you can vary the speed and intensity so it certainly wasn't so painful) but I never really was terribly successful at pumping (although I did it a lot and did it for 6 months whilst back at work with my first .. now that was funny .. just the note on my closed door saying "taking a breastfeeding break" had my male colleagues (and some female ones) hairing off down the corridors .. peace and quiet for me - kept that notice up for quite a few hours every day and no one dared interrupt to see if I was available - got lots of work done!).
Never found breast feeding easy .. got lots of mastitis and also thrush and most of the time it was complete mind over matter to keep it going .. so do not feel bad if all these lovely tips (most of which I tried) simply don't work for you. But I kept going. Son number 1 - fed him for 18 months. Son number 2 - 2 years. Even if it isn't a walk in the park, you can often manage. And if you can't, well just great on you for trying.
Good luck and hope it all goes well.
PS re the starving baby fear ... all shops sell forumla milk, so if she gets anywhere near starvation, you can always pop out for a tub! Before my first was born, I remember thinking that I would never have time to enter a shop again, but you do! Because there are all those beautiful cute little baby things to buy (more of).
Pleasure to pass on the great tips I was given by wonderful caring ladies. I hope they help you as much as they did me.
I'm sure you won't let your little one starve - you'll do just fine
And if it doesn't work, no matter what you do, you and baby will be fine too.
Did you notice I write technical user manuals for my day job?
Puddy
For my son, I used the big electric Medela, which you can also rent in most pharmacies. He was in intensive care and fed through a tube, so I had to pump my milk for him. As noted before, if your doc write a prescription your insurance will cover about 90% of the rental cost.
I bought the electric hand-held Medela pump for my daughter. I like it, and more important I can express milk easily and quite quickly, while I never managed to produce anything with a manual one!
According to a friend, you feel more comfortable with Avent or Medela depending on the shape of your breasts... I have the watermelon kind, and Medela is fine for me!