Why I love the hand pump

PRICE!!!!
Ok. In all honesty I don’t have a lot of experience with electric pumps, but to me the hand pump is ideal for so many reasons. For one, those double electric pumps are at least $200-300 or more. My first hand pump-the Avent Isis was around $40. My second was free (the hand adaptations to the Ameda I used at the hospital when my second was born- I probably DID pay for it, but that’s another story). I’ve had to purchase a few replacement parts for my Avent, but I bet the same thing would happen with an electric pump. The only thing cheaper would be hand expression, but I just don’t want to go there.

Silence.
At home I can pump while watching TV, at work I can pump with out my co-workers wondering what I am doing behind closed doors and the same goes for pumping in airports and airplane bathrooms when I have to travel for work. I would have never thought of this until I started shopping for pumps when I was pregnant with my first. I was looking at the overwhelming selection of them in Babies R’Us when one of their employees and fellow pumping mothers came to help me. She told me which one she preferred. She said it was only because it was quieter than the others and she could pump in the break room with out disturbing others.

I do have a fairly inexpensive electric pump that my friend gave me (it was still new) and I take it on business trips so I can pump the lazy way while I e-mail, or surf the net, but I can’t really watch TV or talk on the phone- which is what I really want to be doing while sitting in a hotel room by myself. The darn thing is too loud.

When I had my second son I used a hospital grade pump for 6 days while he was in the NICU. It was quieter, but there is still a certain amount of sound that comes with it.

Control.
It could just be me, but I find the actual pumping of the pump annoying and slow. For me, I just apply constant pressure until the horns partially fills up (10 seconds or so when I first start to pump) and then release to let it drain. A few minutes into the pumping session I may start the actual “pumping” but it’s more like 75% of the time I’m squeezing the handle for pressure, and only 25% of the time or less I’m releasing it. I’ve always done it this way, and find it’s much faster than how you are told to pump.