Medela Freestyle Hands-Free Double Electric Breast Pump with Wearable Cups, App Connectivity, Portable and Discreet Design

I am a first time mum and used a hospital grade pump before being sent home. Having exclusively breastfed, I wanted something easy and less time intensive to help me have a break every now and again and allow my husband to help feed.When looking into pumps, Medela always came up as a reputable brand - but looking at some of their other pumps with so many parts, I was turned off - until this new release pump came up!I PAID FULL PRICE (not gifted free product) and I am impressed.PROS- there’s literally 3 parts to clean, I’m someone who can’t handle complicated products - this was so easy and straight forward.- The suction is as good as the hospital grade pump I used - I only use settings at half the max suction, and it’s strong enough!- Handsfree cups - they sit nicely on the boob and in any bra - very comfortableCONS- the motor unit is quite loud and also huge - no way this can fit in any modern pocket! So in that sense I don’t feel its truly Handsfree, unlike the Elvie- measurement cups - its really hard to see how much you’ve pumped - the graduations dont have the ML’s on each line, and it’s also hard to read on the transparent cup. As the cup also sits on an angle, it’s deceiving how much ML’s is actually collected in the cup - given it’s shape- noise - this is not overly noisy if pumping at home, but my friend has the Elvie and it literally is dead silent which is so good if pumping near your baby, or if in public

Very happy with this pump so far. It has been a lifesaver for a tricky start to feeding - building supply via triple feeding.Pros:Battery life is decent and it recharges pretty quickly using a usb 2 cable that I have around the house anyway.It's pretty portable - the motor part is fairly small and not too heavy. You can put it in a large pocket or use the neck strap.The collection shells are easy to take apart, clean and sterilise.It's possible to use this and also hold your baby (although you have to have them on your lap or at hip level so you don't bash the cups).I have found it relatively comfortable to use with the addition of flange inserts that are sized to my nipples - would strongly suggest this. You can buy a measuring tool and inserts on Amazon for not much money.- You can easily adjust the level to make sure you're comfortable but also maximise output.- In terms of output I get a similar amount with this as I do with the plug in, hospital grade Symphony that I hired direct from Medela (I was advised to do this by a lactation consultant as I wanted to build up my milk supply following a very tricky start to feeding). I much prefer this on the whole to the old fashioned, plug in version, as I can be sitting anywhere or getting on with a few light tasks around the house when using it.Cons:- It can sometimes be tricky to get the collection cups in the right place. A couple of times I've come to the end of my 20 mins and just realised I haven't got anything on one side, which is demoralising!- If your bra is too tight it can be uncomfortable. If your bra is too loose the shells can move and leak!- I sometimes find it uncomfortable to take the cups out as it's easy to catch a sore nipple with the underside of the shell, where it has the ridge for it to stand upright. Be careful!- Usually a bit of milk remains stuck in the "hole" of the flange rather than going into the body of the cup. There's a knack to taking them off and pouring them to avoid spilling this bit. It was a little depressing to lose even a small amount in the early days, as every drop was precious when I was first starting to build my supply.- the buttons on the motor part are touch sensitive (apart from on/off). This means they're easy to knock or press accidentally which I don't like. I'd rather have a physical button.- It makes a little chiming noise when switching on, off, or plugging into charge. I think this is ok but now have to be careful using at night now my baby is older as the noise can wake her. It would be good to be able to switch this off.- I thought I would check how much replacement shells are as thought it would be useful to have a spare set so I don't have to wash as frequently. They're about £75 on the Medela website which seems very expensive for two pieces of hard plastic and one piece of silicone.- I used the app for the first week or so but on the whole I found it crashed and lagged too much. You also can't log pumping with another pump which didn't work for me. Went back to using huckleberry.On the whole - expensive but you get what you pay for. Recommended for someone who will be doing a lot of pumping rather than occasional use.

Superb product, works very well, worth every penny. Pros far outweigh the cons, every bit as good as the hospital grade pumps for €1k+Cons -you can’t bend over (to pick something up) while wearing as they will spill.The App is not great but that’s a minor thing, I didn’t buy it for the app and it’s not required.If it came with a second set of cups it would be great as it’s a pain having to clean and sterilize after each use as I’m expressing every 4 hours for twins.