Sharing my breast pump journey and reviews to hopefully help a few people 🤗 I’ve tried the Willow, Elvies, Spectra S1, and Motif Duo. I’ve also used the Avent manual pump, Medela manual pump, Haaka, haaka breast shields and medela breast shields. Tl;dr: I’m keeping the Motif Duo as my primary pump, a
nd using the elvies for my mid day pumps and any time I leave the house. The Willow was painful and problematic , and the S1 was great but huge. I swear by my Haaka for establishing a supply, and the medela shields for when my nipples are sore. The haaka shields were uncomfortable and didn’t do anything for me. Pictured is the Motif duo with the Maymom S1 kt The haaka is the best thing for increasing supply while nursing no matter what pumps you’re using! I wore this on the opposite breast for every feed over several weeks until I had enough oversupply to start freezing. It was a huge relief when I was engorged and starting to get backed up and way better at relieving my clogged ducts than any other pump. My biggest word of advice is to keep an empty bottle next to you while you’re using it and pour off every half ounce you express so if it falls off or gets kicked by baby, you’re not drenched and don’t lose much. Plus while you’re establishing your supply, you’ll have a bottle ready to go if baby is still hungry after nursing! The Spectra S1 and Motif Duo are almost exactly the same pump! They both have a “vibration” feel to the pump which helps get more output in a shorter time than the elvie. The huge advantage of the motif is the size! The S1 is almost the size of a bowling ball, and the Motif is the size of a walkie talkie. They both have different suction settings and you can switch between expression and massage mode for different speeds. The S1 has one more speed adjustment, but it’s only available in expression mode and didn’t make the size worthwhile for me. Both use the same tubing as almost every other pump on the market, so if you prefer the spectra or medela valves and flanges you can easily swap them out. I usually throw the motif in my sling while baby wearing, and I ordered a Fanny pack to carry it if and when he ever lets me set him down! The Elvies were a huge improvement on the Willow. I’ve pumped at Target, the car dealership, Costco, and the post office! They’re the quietest electric pump I’ve used, and actually as quiet as the manual ones. The suction power has a better range, so “low” is actually low but high is still pretty high. They’re lighter and smaller, so my bra holds them pretty well (although be sure you have a good fitting bra!), and I can pick up baby while wearing them. Pausing a session to feed is easier with the elvie than any other pump which happens a lot with a newborn! The bottom is flat so it sits nicely on a table when you’re putting your breasts away or taking the pump apart. The parts can be easily cleaned in a microwave sterilizer and assembly is really fast! They’ll charge with a USB charger and I now keep a reusable USB battery in my bag for it. The only reason I have another pump is because it takes longer to fully express with these (about 30-60 minutes vs 15-20), but they do eventually drain me and they’re less hands-on than the spectra or the motif duo. They do have issues leaking from the button area. You need to stay fully upright and can’t lean forward for any reason or you’ll get milk all over your shirt. If they leak, you need to remove the button mechanism and clean it up, otherwise milk will dry in there and cause more issues with leaks. A lot of people recommend the “plastic bag trick” to help with this. I wear a breast pad between the button and my shirt and it catches the small leaks really well. I’ve had a couple sessions where I had suction issues, but it was always an assembly error and easy to resolve. One issue was the membrane was wet, and I resolved it with a paper towel. Another was the valve was deteriorating, and removing it from my rotation fixed it (on all pumps they have a lifespan of 1-3 months). Another time I simply had my bra in the way and didn’t realize it at first! I’ve had just as many issues with the spectra and motif, but I could never use those in a public place! The Willow: This was my must have registry item. I was so excited about it and really wanted it to work! I even ordered a second set of flex tubes and the reusable containers because I was fully committed to it. The lowest suction level was way too intense for me. I checked my flanges and tried a different size, and still had raw, bloody nipples and ended up covered in blebs. I got a bad case of clogged ducts as well, but learned about the haaka before it became mastitis. The reusable containers had issues about 1/4 of the time, where the hub was giving me error messages but my husband and I tried checking all the gaskets and walked through assembly without resolution. I reached out to customer service but the process was slow. They said the containers should be replaced, but it was faster to order another set from Amazon (when you’re a nursing mom time is critical and I don’t have three days for them to decide to help me!) The new set was having the same issues, and again we tried multiple times to eliminate human error as the cause. The bags worked reliably, but as I’m pumping 4-5x a day right now, I just can’t justify spending $1 per session! They were also filling with more air than milk, so I couldn’t even try to use one bag on both breasts to conserve resources. They are also huge! I couldn’t it into most of my shirts with them on because they stuck out so much like giant robotitties, and they were so heavy my bra struggled to hold them in. Their shape makes it hard to set down if you need to for a second because it would try to end the session too early and then leak everywhere. They have a setting called “flip to finish” where you rotate the pump at the end of your session to catch the leaks, but half the time it would leave 1/4oz in the flex tubes that you couldn’t see, and then it would run everywhere when you tried putting things away. I couldn’t hold my baby while wearing both of them at all, and when I tried one would get bumped and try relatching painfully to the side of my breast. Additionally, the flanges use magnets to set alignment, so they can only be sterilized in boiling water, not the microwave. That’s a relatively minor inconvenience if you’re not sterilizing things constantly, but it’s not an issue at all with the other pumps and was just added incentive to return them (which, thankfully Amazon helped me out with, given the failures of the reusable containers and the concerns to my health)
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Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021 by Geneva Martin Geneva Martin
