Working Moms - how long did you express for

Awesome Huggles! Good timing that you find that nice shop assistant! Sometimes they can be real grumpy...

I went to Baby Boom on Friday to set up my baby shower gift box and i saw that they sell the Medela pumps. So i mentioned to them that i was concerned about how noisy they might be.

So next thing, no problem, the lady hooks up the mini electric and swing electric demo pumps and puts them on for me to listen! I must admit, the mini electric (and therefore i reckon the mini electric plus also) was really quite loud - made me thing of a remote controlled aeroplane flying overhead! There's no ways that i'd be able to relax enough in an office with hardboard walls to express. So then she switched on the swing electric. I could hardly heard it! She even had to switch off the shop's background music so that i could hear it - it was really really quiet so i reckon i'm gonna give that one a try. (no use having a double pump and then being so tense about the noise that the milk won't come anyway!)

I also work in a very industrial environment so sadly it was not an option for me. I stopped a month before I went back to work (at 4 months) as expressing just took so long. I spent many many hours sitting on the couch. I wish I could've got breastfeeding right from the get go!

Hi

Stopped expressing when daughter was 16ish months, as I changed jobs and our conference room door doesn't have a lock on it. Expressing in the bathroom - I could see the bacteria getting into the milk, so just couldn't do that.

My milk supply was very low, even after going on medication so sometimes I could express about 200 ml's, other times 100 ml's or so - in total!

Also took a cooler bag with ice pack to work - didn't want people at work nabbing my baby's milk when there was no 'office milk':O)

Thanks Elaine!

Huggles: I first had an Avent Manual pump, but I really struggled and only got about 60mls at a time with that.

The Medela electric works much better for me, I can get 200mls in 10 minutes pumping both sides. I like it that I can pump both breasts at the same time, as I don't have much time to express. I am working full time, and found the Medela pump to work very well and fast. You can set the strength of the pump which I like.

It does make a noise, nothing too loud though, but I must admit that the 1st time I used it I felt like a cow.

I don't know how expensive they are, seeing as I bought mine here (Taiwan)

Thanks Deja,

I'm still very much doing research and looking around as to what i want, not quite ready to buy yet. But i'll definitely keep in mind what you've said.