The Lansinoh concept:
Lansinoh are probably more often associated with cream to soothe sore nipples during breastfeeding, than with expressing milk, but they have been a tried and tested company for many, many new mothers over the years and their manual breast pump is as simple, no-fuss and easy to use as you'd expect.
The pump action:
Ease of use
Hand pumps might not be as easy for some women to use as electric pumps - see the Buyer's Guide to Breast Pumps for more about the key differences. However, a good hand pump is quieter, more portable and less fuss, but just as effective.
Similar to the Avent Isis, which has a soft, cushioned pad where your breast fits, this model's padded 'horn' is comfortable to use, and combined with the pump action, seems to ensure effective pumping.
As with most of the more efficient hand pumps, it does have various complicated looking bits to put together before you start. That increases the effectiveness of the pump action without you feeling like you're a cow being milked! The instructions are easy to follow, and with just a couple of attempts, you will quickly get into the swing of how to put it together after each wash and sterilising session.
One thing we did notice - it's light, which can help so you don't get tired arms, but this also can make it feel more flimsy to use. This made the little base it stands on all the more important to use once the bottle had some expressed milk in, to make sure it didn't topple over.
Performance
For a hand pump, we found it well-designed, and yet no-nonsense. Hence it retails at an affordable price which gives you the chance to see if expressing milk is for you.
The shape of the bottle makes it quite easy to decant expressed milk into the storage bags provided, and even the essential little valve is quite easy to clean with the small brush that comes with the set.
