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In the first weeks after I had my son, I had trouble finding time for both pumping and self-care. Breaks from feeding him or changing him or holding him would come in 10-minute flashes, and I could either use that time to sit at the pump or, say, take a long(ish) bath. Or, I realized, both. Once I started combining them, this became my morning ritual: After the morning feed and during my son’s first, fleeting nap of the day, I’d draw a warm bath (which had the benefit of stimulating the letdown reflex), take my manual pump with me, and idly collect breast milk while relaxed. Collectively, I spent a lot of time this way over the course of my son’s first year, and I spent even more pumping in general. Across my electric and manual breast pumps I have expressed more than 1,200 ounces of breast milk.
Trouble was, I didn’t much like the manual pump that had come recommended to me by, well, everyone: the Medela Harmony. Here are the positives: The Harmony has the advantage of being compatible with the Medela electric pump, so you could in theory use the same bottles and parts across your pumping needs. But I have a Spectra electric pump (which I love), so that didn’t much help me and wouldn’t be relevant for you unless you are a Medela mama. (Depending on your situation, you may want both a manual and electric pump or just one; electric pumps tend to be more efficient but also less portable.)
The Medela comes with a swivel head that enables you to simulate letdown by quickly tapping one side and then swiveling to mimic the longer sucking motion that will draw milk out for the duration of your pump. Ergonomically, this is supposed to be both more effective and more comfortable, but it wasn’t for me.
When it came time to clean and sterilize and reassemble the Harmony, the swivel head became my nemesis. In my postpartum fog, I not infrequently put it together incorrectly, so it would either fail to collect much, if any, milk or just annoy me to the point of abandoning my plans to pump altogether.
I thought this was just what to expect with manual pumps. But then, when I forgot the flanges for my Spectra and couldn’t find them anywhere in a 30-mile radius of the Kansas town I was visiting, I ended up having to purchase a different manual pump: the Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump, which my husband found at a nearby Target. It was the only pump in stock. I was desperate, unsure if it was even up to the job, and I certainly didn’t expect to actually like it. To my pleasant surprise, the Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump has become one of my preferred tools, the thing I’ll be gifting and packing even instead of my Spectra (gasp!).
Like the Harmony, the Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump allows for both stimulation and expression phases, which you can toggle between by adjusting the position of the pump head with a click. For me, the handle was easy to use — but the best part was that I didn’t have to use it for long. Hand fatigue wouldn’t set in, because this pump was so efficient for me. The flanges — the pump comes with two, standard (25 mm) and large (30.5 mm) — have a soft rim that creates a nice seal. I used both sizes comfortably, mostly because of that soft rim that reduced discomfort. The Lansinoh was no pleasure to clean (but is any pump?), but it was straightforward enough, and easy to reassemble — at least for me. (My husband had some trouble on that front.)
I didn’t use the provided bottles, because my son was already accustomed to Philips Avent bottles, which, again, are compatible with my Spectra pump. Instead, I pumped directly into Lansinoh Breastmilk Storage Bags.
Many manual pumps are in the same general price range. The Lansinoh Manual Breast Pump is about $24 on Amazon, and it’s sold at many big-box stores. I think it’s well worth it.
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