I’ll admit, I’m not a pump veteran. As a first time stay at home mama, prior to reviewing the Philips Avent Comfort manual breast pump I have been exclusively breastfeeding and hand expressing, which has worked pretty well for me given I rarely spend more than a few hours away from my little one. Having said that, I was excited to see how using a manual pump could speed up the process and (hopefully!) be less messy and awkward. So here goes…
The pump itself is super simple to assemble – there are seven parts in total and the whole thing is surprisingly small. Great for popping into your baby bag, if need be. An added bonus is that it comes with a silicone teat so you can rig up a feed immediately after pumping.
One of the highlight features of this pump are the silicone ‘petals’ that proclaim to massage your breast in a similar fashion to a suckling baby, encouraging faster let down. Whilst I don’t have any benchmark on how quickly my let down came in, the pump was definitely comfortable to use and my let down came in after a few pumps. Sometimes, when I was really rushed, I latched my little one on for a few seconds and then pumped as soon as I could feel the milk coming in.
When my milk flow started, I was surprised at how much came out and how quickly I was able to pump 100mls. There is simply no comparison with hand expressing. The suction that came with each pump was strong enough to get a good amount of milk, but not uncomfortable so that it hurt, sort of like feeding a really hungry baby. The best thing? Instead of the inevitable odd spill with hand expressing, the milk neatly flowed straight into a bottle.
Though I never measured how much I was pumping, I easily managed to pump enough milk for an outing, in under 10 minutes.
All in all, I really enjoyed using the Philips Avent pump. Quick, convenient, lightweight and easy to clean with hot soapy water.
The only downside? Sometimes, and I am still not sure why, my milk will leak onto the silicone pad and mess with the suction. Looking at other feedback for this pump, it looks like it’s a universal problem (and not just my boobs, thank goodness) – in order to stop it from happening, you can remove the silicone cover and it will apparently work just as well.
If you are looking for a quick pump here and there, I’d definitely recommend the Philips Avent Manual pump. If, however, you want to make pumping a regular thing – ie, if you’re a full time working mum – you may want to look into pumps of the electric variety to ease up on all that hand clenching action.
The Philips Avent Comfort Manual breast pump is priced at $99 and is available from OG, Mothers Work and First Few Years, to name a few. For a full list of retailers, please visit the Philips website: http://www.philips.com.sg/
Comments 2
My wife has been using this pump for the last three months. It's really high quality but one thing that bothered us was the squeaky noise it started to produce. After reading about it over the internet I found that vaseline can eliminate it. It did help. Just my $ .02. Here is more about vaseline and pumps – http://babygearhub.net/best-manual-breast-pump/
Hope it helps