Rachel sent us her amazing story and kindly allowed us to share it – so lovely!
“My daughter was born 6 weeks prem and began her stay in the Special Care Nursery. After having an extremely rough time establishing and maintaining a milk supply with my 1st child when I owned both a Medela swing and a Medela Freestyle breast pump, I was extremely anxious that my milk supply would not cut the requirement of my new born especially being that she was prem – and in my opinion needed the nutrients and immunity support of breast milk so much more than a full term baby.
The Meldela symphony pumps in the mummies feeding rooms at the SCN in the hospital worked great, but I looked into purchasing it and not only did I find I couldn’t purchase it in Australia, but even if I could it would be in excess of $4000. What a joke. I did end up finding out I could hire it at around $140 per month from a pharmacy. Being that I had no choice and building my milk supply from the beginning was the most important task post birth that I had – I hired the Medela symphony from the chemist and felt dismal about the fact that I was spending such HUGE money on a rental.
I started to google hospital grade pumps to see what else was out there and there came across the Spectra. Then the next day I spoke to the lactation consultant at the hospital whilst bringing in milk at the SCN, I told her my pump sadness and she mentioned the Spectra. A few hours later as I sat in the mummies feeding room at the SCN pumping on the hospital Medela Symphony along with 3 other mums all pumping milk at the same time we all had a discussion about pumps and 2 of the other mums had also heard great things about the Spectra,…. After 3 mentions in a 24 hour period – I decided to contact Spectra to find out how I could try one out for myself.
The Spectra support team told me I could hire the pump from Sweet Beats – it was $80 monthly which was nearly half the cost of the Medela Symphony hire. I submitted my request on line and had the pump delivered to my door the next day! How convenient – especially as though because I had had a caesarean I couldn’t drive anywhere to pick one up.
I tried the S2 side by side with the Medela Symphony – and I was amazed. Not only did the S2 pump extract all my milk faster on the side which is normally stubborn and requires extra massaging to come out, but it felt more comfortable and not so painful on the highest settings as did the Symphony. After continuing the use of both pumps to be sure I was happy – I hands down picked the Spectra over the Medela.
I was extremely happy to return the hire Medela symphony hire breast pump and hold onto the Spectra even deciding to purchase the Spectra being that I would be continuing use of the pump for the next 12-18 months, I bought the S1 which is the rechargeable and portable version of the s2 – and I am thrilled with it. I have already taken it in the car with me twice in the last week – what an efficient use of time to pump in the car!!!
Thank-you Spectra from the bottom of my heart – this has made something which I assumed would be most stressful into something I am proud of. Not only has my milk supply been increasing with use of this pump – but I now in 4 weeks of my daughters life have been able to more than fulfill her milk requirements with no formula and i have in abundance of 7 liters frozen in the freezer! Daily milk supply is approx 950mls vs my first child’s daily milk supply of 480mls (at its best)
I know that pregnancy and the first few months of a newborns life can be the most of stresssful and busiest times, so often giving time to consideration of milk supply and a suitable breast pump is not high on the priorities assuming your milk will just be there, which is quite often not the case and requires lots of initial work to establish a great milk supply.
I’ll also be telling all the new mummies to be out there that the Spectra is a MUST into starting a new family.
My daughter has now been discharged from SCN and thriving at home and I am one very happy, breast feeding and milk pumping mummy!”
