Electric Breast Pumps

Choosing an electric breast pump




Your choice of breast pump will depend a lot on your circumstances: stay-at-home moms may use one only occasionally to buy themselves a night out, or as a way to get dad more involved in night-time feeds. If you're in this category, you may be able to get away with using a manual pump, which will have the benefits of being cheap and extremely lightweight and portable.

Working moms though will depend on their pump to enable them to express sufficient quantities of milk for their baby's daily needs in a relatively short period of time, and for this you'll almost certainly need an electric pump. For the rest of this article I'll assume you fall into this category, and outline the various features you should keep in mind as you shop around for a pump.

Cycle time

This is a measure of the number of sucks per minute that the machine can achieve; the higher the number, the quicker you'll typically be able to empty your breasts.

Suction strength

Your pump needs to be able to exert enough suction to get your milk flowing freely, but obviously without causing you discomfort. Pumps that allow you to adjust the suction are great for balancing these somewhat conflicting requirements.

Single or dual

Choosing a pump with dual breast shields enables you to milk both breasts simultaneously, which means you will get the job done a lot quicker, and are also more likely to empty your breasts and thus stimulate more milk production.

Detachable containers

It's useful to choose a pump that is compatible with your feeding bottles (which normally means using bottles from the same manufacturer). This means that you can express milk into the same container that you'll use to feed your baby, and thus cuts down on the number of items you have to keep track of (and keep sterilising!).

Ease of cleaning

The less bits you have to keep track of the better, both for cleaning and reassembly.

Portability

Mains-powered double pumps tend to be bigger and heavier than say a manual pump, for obvious reasons. Make sure the model you choose has a case or bag to house all the bits and pieces and make it easier to take it with you.

Noise levels

The obvious downside of electric breast pumps is the noise factor which makes it a lot harder to express discreetly, or even to pump one breast while your baby is feeding on the other side.