Breast Pump Round Up

I posted a photo recently wearing my Elvie Stride breast pump, and someone asked for more details, so I thought I would share a full breakdown of my pumps and how I use each of them. 

For context, I exclusively pumped for the first couple weeks and then transitioned to mainly nursing, but I still try to pump and feed him at least one bottle per day in order to keep him used to bottles, share night feed responsibilities, more easily give him vitamin D supplement, relieve fullness if he sleeps for a long time, and sometimes to give my body a break while we keep learning how to nurse well. 

Here are the four pumps I use:

1. Spectra S1 (Blue): This one is a super reliable hospital grade pump. It plugs into the wall and you have to either hold the cups up yourself or wear a pumping bra to hold them up. 

My doctor was thrilled to hear that I had this one because it’s great for establishing supply — they say it has stronger suction and does a good job of fully emptying the milk which can be especially important in the early days. I never use this pump anymore because of the inconvenience. It worked well, but you will need to make sure you have the correct size flanges.

This one would have been really cheap with insurance but it was actually gifted to me as a hand down, which meant I had the ability to get a second pump through insurance.

2. Elvie Stride: This is one of the wearable kinds that you just stick in your bra which is super convenient. The downside is they say this kind doesn’t always do as good of a job at emptying so some people say wearable pumps ruined their supply or gave them clogged ducts/mastitis. 

I checked with our pediatrician to see what she thought about that… even though it was very early on she said that because I seemed to have an oversupply it was OK for me to use the wearable pumps. In my experience the Elvie stride empties me just as much and just as quickly as the Spectra. 

I am pretty sure the Elvie Stride has a higher suction power than the other Elvie Pump… the Stride is considered “hospital grade” but I don’t think that is a regulated term, so I’m not sure what that actually means. My insurance covered most of the Elvie Stride but not much of the original Elvie.

I often use the Stride one side at a time, and when I was exclusively pumping I bought an extra set of everything that touches the milk… That way I could pump four times per day without washing anything and throw it all in the dishwasher at night, and then I had my other pumps for the rest of the pump/feed sessions. some people also just put their parts in the fridge so that they don’t have to wash as often, but I’ve heard mixed things about mixing warm and cold milk, so I wasn’t sure about this. 

3. Medela Harmony Manual Pump: This is a small manual pump. I still use it to quickly pump for 10 or 15 minutes if I just need a little more milk to make a full bottle or if I need to relieve one of my boobs and just take a little off the top (my lactation consultant recommended doing this to avoid mastitis if you are very full). 

With this one and with the spectra, you can use a sizer thing to make sure you have the correct size flange so that it’s not painful. 

4. Haakaa Suction “Pump”: I use this sometimes to collect extra milk on whatever side I am not pumping/feeding. I’ve found that it collects almost as much as a pump would if I use it this way! Haakaa claims you can use this as a pump on its own also, and I’ve heard of other people using it that way however, I have never personally found it to be useful unless I’m also pumping or nursing the other side at the same time.

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I will try to do another post about bottles once we have it a little more figured out… still experimenting! One thing to know though that I did not know at first is that different nipples have different flow speeds and newborns usually need the slow flow nipples, so pay attention to that when purchasing. 

As far as other accessories, I like this Medela storage set because the tops make it easy to label when the milk was pumped, including AM or PM. I never bought a warmer or sterilizer because the baby is content with cold bottles right from the fridge, and I wash everything just by putting it on high heat in the dishwasher. I boil things for five minutes occasionally if something seems extra dirty or milk has been sitting out in it for a long time. 

Hope you find this helpful if you are beginning your pumping journey!