Choosing the right breast pump for you

Let’s talk all things breast pumps 🥛

The first thing you need to ask yourself is why may I need a breast pump?

Do you just need your pump to express milk for your infant on the rare occasion? Is it to create and maintain a freezer stash for returning to work or when you may be separated from your babe? Perhaps you need a pump to relieve engorgement or blocked ducts, or this pump may be for use every day to express milk to feed your infant for every feed.

You may not be aware of the exact reason just yet and that’s perfectly fine. You will typically know your reason by week two of breastfeeding. Then you can make the decision about what breast pump to go with. If this pump will be getting a good workout say being used purely for expressing to feed your infant every feed or for maintaining supply then you will want to look at getting yourself a decent pump. If you only need your pump for the occasional expressing then you may be able to just grab a manual breast pump.

Types of breast pumps:

Silicone milk collector

An alternative to a breast pump and a much cheaper option is a silicon milk collector. These nifty little devices suction onto your breast and collect your letdown whilst you are breastfeeding. You literally have to do nothing but sit back and watch your milk be collected. A great, portable option that has no noise or effort required.

Manual breast pump

Breast pumps do differ from quite a basic breast pump as we would see with a manual pump.

These pumps are lightweight, usually discreet and portable. You manually have to control the pump to express your milk. The con with having a manual pump would be the exertion needed and you may find that you get less milk being expressed with the minimal suction a manual pump provides.

Battery-operated breast pump

A breast pump that uses batteries is again very portable, can be used for pumping one or two breasts at the same time and can be much cheaper than an electric pump. A battery-operated breast pump can be slow with much less power than an electric one and go through a lot of batteries to keep it running. This type of pump would be suited to the occasional expressing.

Electric breast pump- Single

An electric breast pump that expresses one breast at a time only is a more powerful option though as I said can only do one breast meaning it will be more time-consuming and you will get less milk expressed. This pump requires to be plugged in when in use which can be a pain.

Electric breast pump- Double

An electric breast pump known as a double breast pump can be on the more expensive side but has many pros like allowing you to express from both breasts at the same time saving you plenty of time and giving you a decent amount of milk expressed.

Hospital grade breast pump

You can go one better and get what we call a hospital-grade breast pump which is what we use within our maternity departments and throughout our hospitals. These breast pumps are very sufficient and will give you the most milk in one sitting. This pump is ideal for the need to express frequently or to maintain your milk supply.