Hey Elliebee, My recommendation is to not buy one until you have had the baby. That is what we were advised and glad I listened as I never needed one. Even if you are planning on going back to work, or know you will need one, I would wait. A friend of mine bought one, paid quite a bit for it, and then ended up with the BF not working out for her, so she had paid out a lot of money for nothing! Just my two cents worth!

I agree with Pompygirl, that there'll prob be no need for one immediately. I got my Avent manual one for free as a friend had bought it whilst pg and then couldn't breastfeed and was more than happy to give it to me as she just wanted it to go to a good home and be used. To be honest I haven't used it much in 5 years. I've now got the mini medela electric one, another freebie from a friend who had finished with it, you have to sterilise (obviously!) it so I don't feel bad using a second hand one! I haven't used this much either and I do find it a little noisy! Sorry hun, not much help there but my honest opinion is that you would be better holding onto your pennies for a bit longer! :0) dolly x ds x 4

I bought the medela electric one, my plan was that if BF didn't work out I would still try and express for as long as poss, but truthfully I was so exhausted and any time not spent with Seph, or feeding I really just didn't want to express, for me it was just one more thing to get my head around, I had some adjustment issues though! From the few times I used it though I found it to work well, and quickly, all I had to do was hold it, I could in theory have sat and watched TV with OH while doing it, but I felt a little self concious about doing it...

I Would highly recommend the Medela Mini Electric Pump. I found this brilliant, very effective and efficient at expressing. It is a bit noisey but most electric ones are. I got it new from ebay for £29.99 and it's been worth every penny!

Ditto what Whitey said. I had the Medela mini electric (also purchased via Ebay) and used it for nearly a year. A bit noisy but effective. April

I would advise against a Medela. It was OK for expressing and storing in bags/bottles but not great for expressing then feeding to Isaac (who couldn't breastfeed) because there were no teats with the bottle. This meant having to sterilise another bottle (avent or Dr Brown) and pour the milk in there. This became very frustrating, especially when double the amount of things needed sterilising. Avent on the other hand have teats and can be purchased separately, unlike the Medela which can't even be purchased anywhere!

I can agree that that is an irritating feature of this pump, Hels. I also have to agree that we only ever used the Medela bottles for fridge storage, as we used the tommee tippee closer to nature bottles for actual feeding (supposed to mimic the shape of the breast). April

You can get teated bottles for the Medela from mothercare and online. I did the same as April, I only used it for expressing and used tommee tippee closer to nature bottles when feeding him any expressed milk.

I searched ebay and mothercare Whitey and I couldn't find them!

Will try and find the link and post it on here for you. x

Hi Elliebee, I use the Avent Isis IQ uno, i used it the day Rachael come home from hospital as my nipples were sore, and kept using it until I was healed enough to bfeed. I find it very good although I used it without the rubbler petal insert. ( you are given the option in the instructions) How exciting for you, buying all this baby stuff, take care, Fii x

I was the same as you, I was not sure whether to get the avent or the medela, know what made me decide? Avent was on sale with £10 off lol. Fii x