Which Medela Electric Breast Pump?

i am looking in purchasing an electric breast pump, i have done some research and i am interested in either the:

Medela Mini Electric

or

Medela Swing

has anyone here used or own either of these? i am keen to hear feedback as i will be purchasing one soon, and want to make the right decision. Also there is a large price difference between them and would like to find out if it can justify the cost of the swing.

i might be considering returning to work part time and i find it convenient to store and use expressed milk.

i still will be breast feeding and i have a lot of milk, too much for the baby!


any feedback would be greatly appreciated !!!

Hi,

With breastpumps, you pay for what you get. if this is your first baby, you will get use out of a pump like the "swing" with subsequent babies. The motor on the mini electric has a limited lifespan. The mini-electric is also very noisy. In comparison to other baby "stuff" we buy the cost of the pump is not enormous. I would go for the best you can afford.
Barb

I have the medela swing breast pump and found it to be fantastic. I spent alot of time expressing when DD was in the SCN and i couldnt imagine doing it by hand.
It has 2 settings...the first prepares ur breast (kinda like what massaging the ducts does if u express manually) and the other pulls the milk out...prolly not the right word for it but u know what i mean. U can turn it up or down depending on how comfortable u are with the pulling sensation. Easy to clean and comes with a pouch for ur bag... i was dissapointed though that some extra storage containers didnt come with it for the $300 i paid.. or even some lids to close the one bottle u get. They can most probably be bought seperatly though...
I recommend the pump :)

Oh and i have seen in pn special at toys r us in the past... for like $199 so if u have time to wait for a special...might be worthwhile

I have the swing too. I haven't had any probs with it. It is lovely and quiet, compact and easily transportable.

Good luck!

Firstly I hired the Symphony and then realised I would be better off buying one so my husband bought me the Mini Electric. It was $140 and in all honesty, I have found no difference in the two other than the mini being slightly noisier. I was warned by a m/w that the mini was noisy but even though not silent I wouldn't say it was noisy- nothing like a hairdryer or electric beaters, for example!!
However, I have only had it a few weeks and I don't know anything about long term use. I don't use it daily and only express to empty a breast. I know fancy ones like the symphony are for high usage over a long period of time. I am very happy with the Mini and would recommend it.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Just wondering how loud id Medela Mini? I been reading on other web site that people say they woudln't use it in a nursing room in the shopping centre, is it that bad? There about $120 different in between medela mini or medela swing, is the swing really worth that much more? Thanks.

My mini is definately not that loud. I would use it in a parents room in a s/c no problem. It makes a dull tugging sound as it pumps- nothing major. It is nothing unexpected but not silent!

Just had an idea- if you want you can phone me and listen to it over the phone to get an idea of the sound. PM me to let me know!

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Just had an idea- if you want you can phone me and listen to it over the phone to get an idea of the sound. PM me to let me know!

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That's a really good idea, if you don't mind I like to hear it. Can send your phone number to my e-mail: tancy22@yahoo.com.au

Thanks heaps.

I really agree that you should get the best you can afford. I just bought the medela Swing and I love it. Three hundred dollars really isn't that much compared to the amount of money you spend on other things like prams and cots and clothes etc. I used to use the avent Isis, which is a manual pump, and it was a nightmare. I bought it because I didn't want to spend too much money and I ended up buying the new pump and paying 300 dollars on top of the 100 dollars (plus 50 for the damn sterilizor). I had to buy a new pump because the stupid thing stopped working just as I desperately needed it - Aurelia was refusing the breast.

Bite the bullet and get the Swing!

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Just had an idea- if you want you can phone me and listen to it over the phone to get an idea of the sound. PM me to let me know!

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Thanks a lot Deirdre, listen to you mini over the phone is really helped, good luck with your little baby girl too.

Tancy 22 - I have to say that your little girl is gorgeous and what a beautiful name... Good luck with the expressing... I am looking at going back to work so I will be going down this road soon. Have you made a decision as to which pump you are going to buy - would be interested to know... Thanks xxoo

I was set my heart on swing, but since I listen the mini over the phone with Deirdre's one, it wasn't that loud, we still can talk over the noise,so maybe save myself $100, go for the Mini. Really spend too much money on Baby stuff already.

We hired the Symphony pump (Still have it) as that is what we used in hospital.

We purchased the twin Symphony kit which came with the Lactina attachment which doubles as a manual pump.

Question. Does the tubing /bottles and collection part (not the membrane I guess) work with the Swing? Any chance of saving money would be great.

sorry answered wrong question! I have the swing but I don't know if it would fit etc? Sorry hope you get a helpful answer soon!Rach xx

Found the answer - nothing like an eBay search to confirm: and much more realsistic prices!

I have both - got the mini second hand from a friend (she hadn't used it much) and I bought the swing when I went back to work (school teacher). I find I get a better express of milk out of the swing - ie more milk. For me I was also quicker to express with the swing.

I can use the bottles and membrane thingy with both pumps (I still use the mini if I haven't had a chance to give the tubing a wash from the swing some days at home). I'm fairly sure that the medela bits and pieces (bottles etc) are interchangeable with the different pumps. The bottles with the swing are a little shorter and more like a bottle than rectangle-ish and long than the mini.

I'm actually glad I went with the swing in the end. (the ABA shop page had a deal going the other month - not sure if it still is - that gave a bonus carry bag and I ended up with 5 bottles and a cooler, ice brick thingy as well). It just works for me a lot easier and smoother with all the bits and pieces for me when I'm at school.

i had the mini and it wasnt brilliant, i hardly used it with ds but used it LOTS with DD until it died...
the next one i will buy will be the pump in style ( i think)

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Hi,

With breastpumps, you pay for what you get. if this is your first baby, you will get use out of a pump like the "swing" with subsequent babies. The motor on the mini electric has a limited lifespan. The mini-electric is also very noisy. In comparison to other baby "stuff" we buy the cost of the pump is not enormous. I would go for the best you can afford.
Barb

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I agree with this 100%, and I've owned and used both the mini electric (with DS1) and the swing (with DS2)

I actually find them both loud - mini electric was louder though - but thats compared to the commercial/hospital pumps

I found the swing to be slightly gentler than the mini electric too.

Leckert, rayray

thanks, do you think you could use the mini daily? We are trying to save $$$ where we can!

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Leckert,

thanks, do you think you could use the mini daily? We are trying to save $$$ where we can!

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Theres always hand expressing? In terms of how much Im able to express, I find this just as effective as an electric pump (for me anyway) and its free.

Yeah that's right we have the hand pump that came with our kit from the SCN so that's certainly true and a great role for me!

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thanks, do you think you could use the mini daily? We are trying to save $$$ where we can!

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I was using it daily for a bit but only for 1 -2 expresses, when I'm at school I need to do 3-4 (and sometimes 1 more when I get home for enough fresh EBM for the next day and I manage to express around 90mls average at a time; although morning ones are often more). I found that it (the mini) sounded like it was starting to struggle when I was using it a bit more than 1-2 times a day when trying to have a stock up for the first week back when I wasn't sure how much DS would be taking. I now use the mini as my back up pump. I don't have any other pump to fall back on if I need to dry the bits and pieces. I actually agree with Barb in that you get what you pay for in this but you may be able to survive with the mini for a while until you can afford to "upgrade" your pump - that's what I was doing originally as I wasn't sure how the expressing would go and what I'd need for pumping efficiently at school.