In first days babies lost weight and it was then when my midwife told me that it'll be a good idea to express some milk and give him as a top up for a while. I decided to try expressing and sent my husband to buy feeding bottles.
Well, I was not good at expressing. Not good at all! And again my husband went to buy hand breast pump. It was a quick purchase (just as feeding bottles mentioned above!). I didn't had time to explore and read reviews, and anyway I just needed it for a few days.
And again, the hand pump was disaster. Pumping was painful! Pump was difficult to clean and not practical at all. Wasted money! And it was then that I realised that it'll be a clever thing to buy a good solution because I'll need it in the future. Then I remembered the nurse at the hospital talking about Medela Mini. It was the first time I heard about the brand but I decided to order it.
I own this pump for about two months. First I was using it occasionally because I was breastfeeding constantly - I mean constantly! But in last two weeks I'm using it excessively because I have to give top-ups every three hours on the strict schedule for a while.
To be honest I thought that this pump will not be suitable for excessive pumping but it's doing the job with massage and expressing although I wouldn't recommend it for mums who are planning to express excessively for long periods.
Pros :
- It's very easy to use, switch on and adjust the vacuum control.
- Very easy to clean. It consists of five parts of which three are washable, plus bottle. I sterilise them once a day and wash in soapy water after every use.
- It is removing milk efficiently, but of course you shouldn't expect anything close to hospital grade pumps.
- With correct sized breastshield it's not painful or discomfortable to pump.
- It's small and it's easy to carry around if needed.
- It's easy to find all spare parts on the market.
Cons:
- The breastshield is very small (size M, 24mm), I had to buy new one.
- Requires compressing and massage to extract the most milk possible form the breasts.
- It's quite noisy. It is disadvantage especially for night pumping but after a while we get used to it.
- The bottle doesn't come with teat so you need another bottle for feeding or you can buy teat separately.
All in all very satisfied with this product and I'll recommend it for mums who need to pump milk occasionally. To increase your milk supply and to pump excessively I'll recommend buying more advanced models or hiring a hospital grade pump.
