The Dr Brown's concept:
Dr Brown's milk bottles are well regarded for their design - the bottles are sleek and soft to hold, and the special patented internal vent system creates the unique Natural Flow system which many parents choose in order to reduce or prevent their babies suffering from colic.
This manual breast pump can be used with the bottles and is also carefully designed for ease of use. (Of course you can use the pump and accompanying bottle and then pour the expressed or stored milk into a different brand of bottle if you prefer or if you already have some other make of bottle. Though the Dr Brown's bottles tend to be quite tall, they will fit many brands of steriliser.)
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. Indeed, Julie, who road-tested this model for us and has just had her second baby, already owned an electric one which she likes, but was really impressed at the Dr Brown's hand pump's silent action - very useful when operating it in the same room as her older daughter (who likes peace and quiet!).
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, ensures effective pumping. The 'honeycomb'-style fabric is much softer than the hard plastic cup of electric pumps, and Julie found it gentle to use and very effective at encouraging 'let down' (which is when your breast is 'massaged' by the pump's sucking action and begins to produce milk). Compared to her electric pump, Julie found that the Dr Brown's model did not leave a red mark after use.
As with most of the more efficient hand pumps, it does have various complicated looking bits to put together before you start. The way these parts fit together 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.
Two things we really love about it as well as the soft padded 'horn': it's light, which can help so you don't get tired arms, plus Julie really liked the fact that the handle is long, which means it's easy to use and comfortable to use even if you have larger hands. With some models, a shorter handle can begin to dig into your hand after half an hour of expressing. (Expressing can take anything between 20 minutes and an hour with a manual pump.)
Performance
This is a well-designed model which has been thoughtfully developed. It's a flexible model for anyone to use, and its silent action and soft padding make it comfortable and unobtrusive, if you want to see if expressing milk is for you.
