MedelaSwing Flex Single Electric Breast Pump - Compact design, featuring PersonalFit Flex shields and Medela 2-Phase Expression Technology

I ordered this on request from my daughter who had just come out of hospital having spent 2 weeks in hospital with her new baby. After using a hospital grade Medela pump she chose this model to order when she came home. Some reviews on other brands state about them being noisy machines, she said this made noise but being a pump and motor it's going to, but not too loud on the higher setting. This was just as efficient as the one used in hospital & with the same settings & strength. The neck lanyard and battery option she found very useful to not feel confined to sitting & pumping in 1 place & useful to manoeuvre about not being restricted. So far she is finding this efficient for how many times she is pumping in a day & confident to take it with her if needed if she takes it out of then house. She is yet to use the feeding teat as pumps when baby is asleep & keeps the milk in the fridge; this may not be needed but she likes that she has the option to make it into an instant ready to use bottle. A good product & recommended for anyone who is pumping along with breast feeding. Not difficult to use, easy to clean & well worth the money.

I used a Medela symphony pump in hospital due to my son having problems with feeding due to being a little premature. I found this a brilliant pump and was happy that I had already invested in the Medela Swing while pregnant. When I got home and came to actually use the pump, I had a small meltdown when I was unable to create a vacuum, as the breast shield was too big! This was easily rectified by ordering a smaller breast shield, and I have not had any problems since but I would definitely recommend trying the shield for size with the pump switched on if buying while pregnant. I am able to breast feed now so am using the pump much less, however it is excellent. I do not find it noisy, it certainly doesnt bother my son and I barely notice the sound. It isnt as good as the hospital pump but unless you are prepared to pay top dollar, it wont be but is a very close second. I tried an avent hand pump which I found very uncomfortable and awkward to use.The Medela swing is compact, quiet and easy to use and gives a good yield of milk in a short amount of time. Highly recommended.

I have tried 3 electric pumps and a manual pump and have stuck with the Medela Swing. Admittedly it's one of the most expensive, but in this case it is worth the expenditure. However it's worth noting that I managed to get the pump at the reduced cost of £88.00 from Amazon, when the RRP is £129.00, and it's available from the NCT shop for £99.00.PROS:1. Fully adjustable suction strength so the suction can be as gentle or as strong as you need.2. Has the most powerful suction of all of the electric pumps that I've tried so am able to express more milk more quickly.3. Breast guard fits well and is comfortable.4. Easy to assemble, clean and maintain (save for the suction pipe; see below).CONS:1. According to the instructions the suction pipe cannot be sterilised in the microwave however, it isn't too difficult to clean; it's just a minor irritation. However the other parts can be sterilised easily.2. My baby doesn't like the Calma teat that is provided, so I pump into the bottle provided and then transfer into baby's MAM bottle.3. As with most pumps, you have to sit upright/slightly forward when expressing milk. However given the suction power, this isn't too much of an issue as it allows me to express more milk more quickly than the other electric pumps that I've tried, so it's a bit of a trade-off.The other pumps that I tried and did not like were:1. Philips AVENT SCF332/01 Comfort Single electric breast pump - RRP £115.00 so not much cheaper than the swing. A nicely designed pump with the benefit of being able to sit back in a reclined position when expressing. However there are only 3 expression suction settings, and the max setting is nowhere near as powerful as the Medela Swing so I found that I could only express half the amount of milk than I can with the Medela Swing.2. Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature electric breast pump - RRP £67.00 so it is significanty cheaper than the Medela Swing and in this case, you get what you pay for. When the pump functions correctly it's fine and is actually more powerful than the Philips Avent pump mentioned above, but not as powerful as the Medela Swing. However I found - like many other users - that air and milk frequently got sucked into the suction pipe which then causes loss of suction which makes the pump pretty much useless. It happened so often I got annoyed and ditched it in the end.3. Philips Avent manual breast pump - RRP £15.00 if you don't need to express often then it's worth considering a manual pump. You get good suction - as good, if not better, then the Medela Swing - at a fraction of the cost. However if, like me, you are expressing everyday, then it's a bit too tiring.

After reading lots of reviews, I came to the conclusion that every product had its fans and 'enemies' (i.e. people who didn't like it), so it didn't really matter which pump I bought. I chose this one merely because a friend liked it. It does the job and how quickly the milk is expressed is not based on the pump, but my breasts. Sometimes it takes forever to get 50ml out and sometimes 100ml just comes out in a flood. Net, I would ignore complaints about any pump being slow, as in my experience the speed is based on me, not the pump.The same goes for the teat: some babies will like the Calma teat, others won't. My daughter hates it, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad teat, it's just that she doesn't like it. I bought the cheapest Tesco bottles, which have nice round teats and she loves them, I also bought Medela slow flow teats separately and she loves those too. I just put the Medela teats into the Tesco bottle's teat ring and it works. So when I express, I use the Medela bottles and store the milk in them and when it comes to feeding, I pour the necessary quantity into the Tesco bottle. This solution works for us, but everyone is different.