Dr. Brown's Manual breast pump?? Anyone have this?? Options

[*Amanda C*]

At Babies R US they now carry Dr. Brown's manual breastpump. Anyone have this? Do you recommend it?? I want a manual pump and I was going to buy AVent until I saw this now I can't decide.k

http://www.handi-craft.com/pumps.shtm

[Momof7]

At Babies R US they now carry Dr. Brown's manual breastpump. Anyone have this? Do you recommend it?? I want a manual pump and I was going to buy AVent until I saw this now I can't decide.k

http://www.handi-craft.com/pumps.shtm

I will throw in my two cents worth, since no one else has yet replied. I have never tried Dr. Brown's breast pump or any of their products. However, I have been spending all my spare time since this spring researching and writing about breast pumps for my website Baby Loves Your Milk Breast Pumps.

Ameda and Medela have been the leaders in the breast pumps industry for the last fifty years, mostly with their hospital grade pumps. In the last few years, the way I see it, many other companies have been jumping on the bandwagon. Some of the breast pumps have been utter failures to their users who review them (i.e. cheap pumps like Evenflo and The First Years). There have been a couple of promising new contenders like Avent and Playtex, that are receiving reviews comparable to Ameda and Medela top-of-the-line electric breast pumps. I was so hopeful for the new Gerber Massaging Breast Pump, because I have always liked all of Gerber's other products, but it is disappointing to report that early reviews are as bad as their previous line of breast pumps.

I would say if you have to be careful about your money (and who doesn't), get the Avent Isis, or the Medela Harmony, or the Ameda One-Hand if you are certain you want a manual breast pump and you must buy one right now. If you can wait, let's just see what the users of the Dr Brown's say.

I really like this forum and I hope more breast pump users will post their opinions of the pumps they have tried. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

This post has been edited by Momof7: Sep 6 2006, 01:14 PM

[LizCat]

I have heard that Dr. Browns is developing an electric BP due out later this year. From what I read on other sites, I believe their manual pump is rated pretty highly so I am excited to see what they develop.

This post has been edited by Linz: Apr 10 2007, 03:31 PM

[Momof7]

Ok, I am back. I have done some more investigating of the Dr. Brown's, and when I contacted them and told them I write about breast pumps for my Baby Loves Your Milk website, they sent me a press kit including a DVD not yet available publicly.

I must say I am impressed with what I saw: the nipple was not tugged and pulled in a "point-and-relax" fashion like you see with most suction-only pumps. It looked much more comfortable.. I can not emphasize this enough. I am only concerned about whether it is effective in expressing milk. If I were still lactating I would go out and try it myself.

What do the users of the Dr. Brown's Natural Flow Breast Pump say about it? So far the only reviews I have found to read are on the Babies R Us website and they are mixed. So mixed in fact, it is a wonder that people can be talking about the same pump. I wonder if some of the users have confused this pump with the "Natural Flow" breast pump by The First Years. It is unfortunate about the names of these pumps having this similarity. I really wish when reviewers say that a pump is horrible or painful they would be more specific about the nature of the problem they had, i.e. friction issues, cycling times too long, suction too strong on lowest setting, etc.

For more information about this breast pump you can read my article, The New Trend in Breast Pumps: Massage

Please share, anyone who has tried this breast pump.

[blissful mama]

I must say I am impressed with what I saw: the nipple was not tugged and pulled in a "point-and-relax" fashion like you see with most suction-only pumps. It looked much more comfortable.. I can not emphasize this enough. I am only concerned about whether it is effective in expressing milk. If I were still lactating I would go out and try it myself.

I have the Dr Brown's manual pump and I was sadly disappointed. While it was just as effective in expressing milk as my electric pump. The cheap rubber "waffle comb" suction area would collapse on my nipple every pumping session and I would have a sore nipple for several hours. I'll admit that not too many pumps are exactly comfortable, but I would have expected more from a $50 manual pump. I would keep this in mind and perhaps have a back-up method of pumping in case you didn't like it.




This post has been edited by blissful mama: Dec 22 2007, 09:12 PM

[marcella]

The Medela Harmony hand pump is really great...haven't tried Dr. Browns.

[mommyO5]

Im totally new here but just had to comment...i have both the dr. brown and medela harmony hand pumps and i totally hands down prefer the medela...i use the dr. brown and nothing really c omes out...it takes forever and it starts to hurt both my hand and breast....the harmony is the bomb i love it. you see results instantly and you control the suction and my hand never starts to hurt. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/closedeyes.gif)