The first time I tried my pharmacy-purchased breast pump, I thought I was going to faint. It wasn't so much the pain as the thought of my poor nipple being whished violently into a forceful vortex. I was sure it wouldn't return again; and if it did, it most certainly would not be the same.I couldn't get the hang of it at first, until Nolan's Dad (always the coach! always the demonstrator!) tried to demo it for me and almost reeled over from the pain of having his man-nipple suctioned into soft plastic. And that was so funny that any discomfort on my part after that seemed elementary.
I stopped pumping about 2 months ago. I used to pump every night no Nolan could have breast milk mixed with his cereal but it was arduous and painful and didn't work at all unless I sat at the computer and looked at pictures of my baby while he slept and I pumped. And it was so frustrating to see the pitiful contents of a half hour of hard work: a mere few ounces.
I used the most expensive pump they had at the pharmacy, figuring that it must be OK if it was $ 80.00. And it was, just OK. I have heard that hospital grade pumps are the only breast pumps that work to suction more than one ounce in less than half an hour. But they're costly to buy and a pain to rent. Does anyone have any great recommendations for a breast pump that works without breaking the bank?







1. I used a rented hospital pump that worked very well, but my insurance covered nearly all of the cost because I had breast reduction surgery. I'm sure there are other strategies for getting insurance to help. They told me all that was required was a prescription from either my OB or my child's pediatrician. I went the OB route.
At work, I used a Medela Pump In Style, which definitely falls into the bank-breaking category, but it worked as well as the hospital pump in a portable size.
I tried some less expensive options but found they didn't work well enough. I was pumping as much to increase/maintain supply as I was to get milk. I think this is one of those "you get what you pay for" kind of things.
Posted at 7:32AM on Jun 11th 2006 by Kim