Medela Freestyle Breast Pump
by Medela Inc.
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List Price: Our Price: $329.99 You Save: $50.00 (13%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $322.99 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Medela Freestyle Breast Pump
Customer Review: What the Fuss? Freestyle
Summary: 5 Stars
I work. I mostly work from home. This work requires me to schedule client meetings every week. Sometimes work requires travel. Still, I love my job and my situation.
This makes breastfeeding less convenient than it would be if I didn't work and never left the house without Leighton. However, I live in the real world and the truth is that I may have already given up on breastfeeding if not for my pump. I can't live without it.
I have a Medela Freestyle breast pump. It is the first pump I have ever tried and it's fantastic. I have seen other pumps - in action - and I believe that mine is the most effective and efficient pump ever.
It weighs less than a pound and fits in the palm of your hand, your purse, suitcase etc. The two speeds for expression are fantastic. That is a feature I couldn't do without. At the time I bought it, this pump retailed for $379.00. I got mine on eBay, new in the box for $280.00. It's worth it at full price, but I had time to spare and was on the prowl for a deal. Yay for me!
I spent the past two days in Minneapolis at my company headquarters for a team meeting. This was the first time I'd been away from Leighton for more than a handful of hours. I went to the fancy pharmacy up the block and bought the Medela cooler bag that holds six 8oz glass baby bottles and two more ice packs.
I use the glass because they stay colder longer and heat easily by running under hot water. Plus, I think the plastic bottles smell and taste plastic-ish. We drink Oberweiss milk because it comes in glass bottles, so why shouldn't Lei's milk get the same treatment?
At five months, Leighton is still nursing every three hours with the exception of night time sleep. She'll go for six hours easily. She takes in roughly four ounces per feeding, maybe a bit less. I'm using the amount I get when pumping to surmise how much she may be getting. So I figure she eats 28oz each day, give or take a few. I was confident that my cooler bag will handle twelve feedings and I wasn't scheduled to be gone for the full twelve.
The whole experience was much better than I had envisioned. I pumped at the airport. They don't have privacy rooms for feeding at Midway, so I sat in the ticketing area with my Hooter Hider and got to work. I had to pump before I went through security because I needed to check the bag with breastmilk. I put the beginnings of my stash in the cooler, used the Medela wipees to clean my pump parts and checked my bag.
Within three hours, I had reached my destination and was roaming the halls of our five-building headquarters for a place to set up my milking operation. Every building on our campus had at least one privacy room with a fridge, sink, chair, ethernet connection, magazines etc. It was a little slice of heaven to slip away, every three hours for a legally protected activity, knowing that I was still doing the best thing I could for my baby who was hundreds of miles away.
The Freestyle has a strap situation so that you can pump both sides simultaneously and hands-free. I don't always use it that way. In fact, if I pump at home to increase my stash, it's at night and I just do one side at a time. I can move it around and manipulate it to get more milk out that way. But, when I'm short on time or need to get back to the meeting, I can do both sides in 8-10 minutes. That is truly incredible.
By the end of my trip, I had five, full glass bottles clinking around in my bag. I packed the cooler into my suitcase and informed everyone handling my bag that there was precious cargo on board. The TSA agent assured me that no one intended to rifle through my bag to steal the fruits of my labor.
I hope those of you who are pregnant, working mothers-to-be seriously consider breastfeeding. It's rewarding and great for your baby. Working, even outside the home, doesn't need to be an obstacle to participating in what could be one of your favorite parts of motherhood.
Jen
Owner/Writer
thedailyfuss.com
Customer Review: Good Pump
Summary: 4 Stars
I had a Symphony rental for the first two months of pumping, and then anguished over whether to buy the freestyle or the pump in style. In the end I got the freestyle, and have been using it for 1 month so far. Main thoughts:
1. Cleaning its parts is MUCH easier than the Symphony parts. Yes you have to clean the parts, as you do with any pump that I am aware of, but freestyle pumps parts have much less nooks and crannies than the Symphony. With the Symphony I kept ending up with black mold on some parts, so far with freestyle none. Love that.
2. The hands free feature is nice but I have a fast letdown (get 5-8 ounces in 10 minutes), so I have been finding it is much faster to just hold and pump than to take the time to get all the clasps going. It is rather time consuming to get all hooked up for hands free. But if I ever want to work on a blocked duct, its nice.
3. It's strong, I maybe pumped a bit more milk with the Symphony but it is barely noticeable. Depending on how full I am, I can pump 4 - 6 oz in the first 6 minutes.
4. The one thing I hate, which is why this gets 4 out of 5 stars, is that if you tip the bottle while hooked up and it's past half full you lose milk. I got spoiled with the Symphony in that regard.
Customer Review: Disappointed with its performance!
Summary: 3 Stars
I had been using the Medela Pump in Style Advance for 3 months before purchasing this. I pump exclusively, so that means I use a pump 6-8 times a day for at least 15 minutes each time! That's a lot of time spent pumping! So when I heard of a pump that didn't require you to be plugged in to an outlet, I was thrilled. Yes its very expensive. At first, using it was great! Then, I washed the parts and dried it (as the instructions say) and lost suction. One of the membranes "failed" (I don't know why!) and I completely lost suction on it (I tested it several times over) so I called the company and they sent me a new Spare Parts kit. That sort of solved the problem, but not really. Ever since using the Free style, I noticed a difference in amounts between my right and left breast. There always has been a slight difference, but it is more noticeable in the Freestyle than the PISA. Sometimes I notice that my left is producing significantly more than my right and I know that the pump parts on the right side isn't suctioning quite right. The timer feature is great, but their "Memory" function is retarded. You have to push it each time to recall the memory for both the expression and stimulation phase (meaning, you have to press it 2x). What's the point of a memory feature if you need to press it more than once to recall your pump cycle? One button should remember how you did the entire pump session. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong, I don't know, I don't bother with it anymore. Yes its lightweight and portable (the Pump In Style won't fit in my work locker) but it has its downsides too.
As for the hands free attachments, I received one in which the clasp was inserted backwards, making it impossible to use. I contacted Medela (again) and they sent me a new pair. The attachments, in my opinion, are not as sturdy as a hands free bra...they take a long time to attach and still feel like they might come off. A bra however, I know that the flanges are nice and tight on my breasts and I am not worried about them falling down when I'm roaming around hands free, whereas the Freestyle attachments make me worried it will fall off.
I'll continue to use the Freestyle for its pros--portability, easy to attach tubing, timer feature.
Customer Review: Terrific with only one suggested improvement
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought long and hard about purchasing this. The cost seemed so high and I really wasn't sure it was worth it. I caved and I am glad I did. The hands free option is fantastic. If you buy a Medela Nursing Bra and use the same one each time it really makes the set up much faster and easier. It comes with Nursing Bra attachments for all other bras so the Medela bra isn't necessary but I prefer it. I like the fact that I can work on the computer fix meals and walk around while pumping which is critical with a two year old and an 8 week old. One improvement I would like to see is for it to be spill proof. When you are finished pumping and taking off everything you have to be very careful to keep it upright and when setting it down the flanges seem to make it top heavy and it will easily tip over. Ok, so I wasn't really thinking but I bent over to check on baby and out came all of the milk I had pumped so it can be very frustrating to lose any precious milk let alone the clean up.
I really recommend this especially if you plan to pump at work or have an older child. It really helps with multitasking.
Customer Review: So far it's up to par with a hospital grade pump but is noisy
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been using this pump for 3 weeks now for my newborn, pumping with it about 8 times a day. So far, I have no major complaints. Recently, I decided to rent a hospital grade Madela Symphony to see if it would produce more milk as I'm trying to increase the supply and I haven't noticed a difference in the milk output when I use the Symphony vs. the Freestyle at the same suction level for the same amount of time, so I believe that the Freestyle is just as effective at getting the milk out as a hospital grade pump.
The small size of it and the hands free aspect are a plus, but to use the hands free mechanism it comes with, you have to have a compatible nursing bra. The Madela nursing bras work with it (of course), but Bravado ones do not. [revision: the Bravado nursing bras do work with an adapter included, but the Bravado nursing tanks do not work with any of the adapters.] At first I thought the hands free part was a joke and was mocking the pictures of the lady working on her laptop or talking on the phone, but after being confined to one spot holding the flanges in place and having my hands fall asleep, I now use the hands free part all the time. It's also great if you have to do massage or compression during the pumping session.
It operates on a rechargeable battery, and I use it on the battery nearly all the time. I can go about an entire day without having to recharge the battery (pumping every 3-4 hours). I haven't noticed a difference in suction when it is plugged in vs. when it is operating on battery - I get the same amount of milk out of it.
The biggest negative I've found with this pump vs. a hospital grade pump so far is the amount of noise it makes. The unit vibrates while it is on and makes a fairly loud noise so it is too loud for me to use in bed at night without waking my husband. While I'm watching TV, I actually have to turn up the volume to hear it over the pump. The hospital grade pump I have is really quiet and barely noticeable when it is on.
The positives:
-seems to work as effectively as a hospital grade pump for me
-small size can fit in a large purse
-has 2 phases of expression like the hospital pumps
-has a memory feature for your custom suction and time settings
-display has a back light so you can see it in the dark
-display has a timer on it
-hands free part stays securely in place on me even while doing laundry, changing diapers, etc
-hands free is easy and quick to attach to the unit and to yourself
-spare parts are easy to get (target, babies R us, etc)
-operates on battery or AC power
The negatives:
-noisiness of the pump
-hands free part only works with some nursing bras. If you don't have one of those, you're out of luck.
The price is high for this pump ($379) but if you're planning on pumping for more than 3 months, I think it is definitely worth the price if the noisiness of the unit doesn't bother you. Renting a hospital grade pump costs about $70/month plus you have to buy the connector kit ($50). Tip: I bought my Freestyle at Buy Buy Baby and used a non-expired Bed Bath and Beyond 20% off coupon making the price significantly less.