Pump In Style Advanced Breast Pump Backpack
by Medela
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List Price: Our Price: $252.99 You Save: $47.00 (16%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $249.88 (click here) Category: Baby Product See more product details |
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Baby Products Reviews of Pump In Style Advanced Breast Pump Backpack
Customer Review: Made breastfeeding possible for me
Summary: 5 Stars
I can honestly say that this pump is what allowed me to provide breast milk to my children.
I heard lots of things about how good breastfeeding is for babies but my first refused to latch to the breast. I used the hospital model for a couple weeks to establish milk supply and then used this exclusively for another 6 months. I actually had better success with this pump in both comfort and supply. I was able to get about 15 oz in 10 minutes with this pump.
My second child was born preemie so she was unable to feed at the breast and again I pumped exclusively. After establishing a supply, I had no problems with it (approx 5 1/2 months of use).
When the third came around, again I pumped exclusively for about 6 months. I did start to notice a few things with it (zipper started sticking towards the end of use and once it made a funny noise like the pump was going out but it stopped and continued working for the remaining 4 1/2 months of use).
Pros:
-Portability (takes less than 5 minutes to pack everything needed into bag or set up for pumping)
-Ease of finding and cost of additional parts - available at Target stores, hospital, online and several other stores
-Same brand and near same quality of machines hospital provides
-Pump fits any standard size bottle
-Breast shields available in several different sizes to minimize discomfort
-Work (IBM) provided purchase option at 1/4 of retail price
-Withstood approx 18 months of heavy use (anywhere from 3 to 12 times per day every day the entire time)
Cons:
-Tight fit for storage and parts in bag
-Keeping condensation out of the hoses was a challenge (I had to purchase several sets b/c I couldn't get the moisture out sometimes. I would run it on "let down" for about 2 minutes just air running through after I was done and that seemed to help but didn't completely eliminate problem. Again, pretty cheap though at $4 to replace).
-Battery pack was heavy and didn't work very well
-If you are not the "standard size", you will need to purchase the breast shields separately but only $12 a set for those.
Customer Review: Great pump for moms on the go or going back to work
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased this pump prior to the birth of our daughter. I highly recommend this pump for many of the reasons listed by others who have reviewed it on this site. The pump is lightweight and portable. It does look like an ordinary black backpack so you do not have to try and hide the pump and accessories. I, personally, do not use the bottles for feeding, but I do use them for storage in the fridge before I make my baby's bottles (I use the Playtex Premium Nursers). Although I am not a very good milk producer, I still pump several times a day in order to give my daughter all the breast milk I can provide, even though we still have to supplement formula. I have not tried any other pump, so I cannot compare it to a manual pump or hospital grade of another variety, however, this pump is fast and efficient. The cooling bag is wonderful. I bring it into our bedroom at night and store bottles in there for when my baby wakes up (usually at 4 AM) so we don't have to go downstairs. The ice pack stays frozen all night, and it worked great on an overnight trip to Boston. It's also great that you can purchase replacement pieces and larger flanges in the stores or on the internet.
I also recommend the Medela Micro-steam bags for cleaning pump parts (and nipples & pacifiers). They are wonderful when you need to clean the parts quickly and don't have the time to wash everything by hand or boil the water.
The only issue I had was that for awhile I had only been able to get suction from one valve/flange and could not pump both breasts at the same time. I soon found out that the face plate over the motor was not properly attached. I had to find a small piece of paper in the box that advised of this issue - and all I had to do was remove the faceplate and attach it again - this was not listed in the FAQ in the users manual. It would have saved me many days of one-breast pumping had I found the reason for the problem earlier (in the manual).
Customer Review: Medela Pump in Style vs. Phillips Avent Isis IQ Uno
Summary: 4 Stars
I own both a Medela Pump in Style (Backpack) and an Avent Isis IQ Uno Philips Avent ISIS iQ Uno Electric Breast Pump - White. Considering the bulky nature of the Medela, I thought buying a single pump like Avent Isis IQ would be a better choice to carry it to work and bring it back home. Later I decided to buy a Medela so that I can pump faster and don't spend as much time pumping at work. I use the Avent twice everyday (in the morning and at night at home) and the Medela three times (at work) every weekday. There are good and bad aspects of both pumps and here is what I think:
Medela Pros:
1) Fast, pumps both breasts
2) Good suction
3) Easy to use and assemble
4) No milk gets wasted
5) High yield
Medela Cons:
1) Bulky, I just leave it in my locker at night because I have other things I need to carry everyday
2) I wish it was possible to remove the machine from the backpack (the freestyle does but not pump in style)
3) Unless you buy softer shells, Avent shells feel more comfortable to me
4) Only electric (or battery) operation
Avent IQ Uno Pros:
1) Small, easy to carry around
2) Also has manual pump handles, good when you have no access to electricity and batteries
3) Comfortable shell insert
4) You set your own speed and suction intensity
Avent IQ Uno Cons:
1) Takes more time (I leave this pump usually at home)
2) When I pump one breast my other breast LEAKS a lot! If you have this problem a double pump may be better on the go. I always put a cup under my breast to catch the milk when pumping the other one.
3)Milk gets trapped between the shell and the insert, around the diaphram etc. A hassle to collect those later
4) I usually get more milk with Medela
Customer Review: buy ameda purely yours pump instead; medela grew MOLD on pump
Summary: 1 Stars
I own both the medela pump in style and ameda's purely yours pump. Ameda's pump is better than medela. See below. I don't use my medela pump at all despite having wasted about $300 on pump and spare parts.
I am a working mom so I pumped a lot with baby #1 and am doing same with baby #2 - already have a freezer full of milk.
Why ameda is superior to medela:
1) NO MOLD growth - milk cannot get into tubes. See below. After I found mold on my medela pump I went out and bought an ameda pump right away.
2) about half the price as medela if you just buy the pump and not the bag etc.
3) the ameda pump is easily freestanding, also has nice slots on the pump to hold your pumped milk in bottles.
If you remove the medela pump from the backpack or bag you'll see the pump casing - the medela pump has holes in the casing around the pump so you don't really want to take it out of the bag - and nowhere to put your pumped bottles so they don't fall over.
FYI Ameda pump has lasted since 2008 with pumping daily 5 days/week (I breastfed baby #1 for 18 months) and it is still going great - I'm using it again now.
Medela knows about the milk in the tubes problem - in fact there are instructions about this in the booklet that comes with their pump. Well, I got milk backed up in the tubes more than once despite following the instructions in the manual. Then I had to stop pumping and dry the tubes out. No more pumping that day as I did not have spare tubes. And, to my horror, despite running the MEDELA pump for a couple of minutes after every pumping as per instructions, and drying out the tubes if they got milk in them, I opened the faceplate of the medela pump one day and found MOLD growing on my medela pump. That was it, I bought an ameda pump and have never gone back.
Customer Review: Get the Hands-Free
Summary: 3 Stars
Everthing I read said to get an electric double pump and Medela was the best so it came down to the Advanced (this one) or the Freestyle (which is hands-free). I asked a couple of people and they really liked the Advanced so I thought "I don't need the most expensive product, let me get the second most expensive product." Well, I wish I had gotten the most expensive.
First the pros: the backpack is really nice, I've gotten several compliments on it. There are a lot of different compartments and I've got all my parts organized very well. As a pump, it works very well, there is a wide range for the strength of the pumping. I like that the bottle screws into the breast shield and I like that it comes with four bottles. The battery pack is nice for when you don't have an outlet (although it can get expensive using the batteries as the default option).
Cons: I bought this to pump at work. I imagine that is what the majority of women are going to do. I pump three times at work. It takes me about 10-15 minutes. When I bought the pump, I thought "I don't need my hands." Wrong. I had someone open the door and stand there looking at me. And all I could do was give them a dirty look and ask them to close the door. If I had my hands available, I could have covered up. Well, maybe you're not worried about that. Ok. Look at the picture. See the tubes connecting the pump to the machine? I have to hold the tubes in place. For 10 minutes. Three times a day. Five days a week. For nine months (hopefully!). That right there is worth the $60 for the Freestyle.
The other con is the milk storage bags only hold five oz. Eventually, my baby will be drinking more than that so I will have to start using two bags per feeding rather than one bag. That will double my cost for the bags.