The Avent Isis iQ UNO concept:
Avent take their highly popular Isis handheld breast pump and go one better by introducing electricity for the Isis iQ UNO. The clever system is allow you to manually establish the expressing speed and rhythm that you're comfortable with before turning on the power to let it do the rest of the work.
The Isis iQ action:
Ease of use
We were surprised by how minimum fuss the Isis iQ is to use. Assembly is quick to get the hang of and, thanks to the unit's relative simplicity, takes seconds, rather than minutes, once you know what you're doing. The various small parts look slightly daunting at first, but once you've put the pump together a couple of times you probably won't need the instructions any more.
Once you've attached the pump parts and motor to the bottle you're using (handily the Isis iQ works with different sizes of Avent bottles as well as the Via and Magic cups), and have turned the power on, you start to express by using the manual pump handle and then, when you're happy with a comfortable rhythm, you press a button to let the pump continue at the same speed. You can re-set the rhythm easily once you've got going if you decide it's not right for you after all, and when you turn the pump off the last setting will be stored in the unit's memory so, for example, you can interrupt pumping or switch breasts without needing to re-set the rhythm.
When you're first starting off with expressing it can take a few goes before you get the right position over your nipple with the pump cup, but a little trial and error is usually all it takes to find what works well for you. Once on you might want to adjust the position during feeding to vary the stimulation on the milk ducts, but again, this is just down to experience and will be the same whatever pump you use.
Performance
Knowing how good the manual Isis is, we had high hopes for the iQ, and have to say that we weren't disappointed. As with the manual pump, the petal massage cushion around the breast scores highly in the comfort stakes and you really don't get that clamped in feeling that you can with some pumps. We can't prove the petal cushion's effectiveness in stimulating the milk ducts to let down the milk, but given the strength of flow we could get with the iQ we're inclined to believe Avent's blurb.
It really is great to be able to mimic the speed and rhythm of your baby's feeding as we find that hitting the right rhythm (not always the same one) can make the difference between a fruitful fifteen minutes of expressing and twenty-five minutes of frustration. As with any method of expressing there are tips and tricks to maximise your yield and minimise the time you spend with a suction cup on your chest.
The noise of the pump's electric action takes a little getting used to and is a bit louder than manually expressing. This might concern you if you need to express in your workplace or somewhere similar, but if it's a toss up between the quieter hard work of manual expressing and the efficiency of the electric, personally we'd go for giving our hands a break and holding up a book while expressing instead.
Having both battery and mains options for power source is very useful, particularly for mums who need to express away from home. The battery life of the pump is pretty good, at around 6 hours of pumping time. There's a battery warning when you've got enough power left for about one more feed, but should you get caught out of battery then you can also finish the feed with manual pumping.
Cleaning
There are quite a few small parts to the Isis iQ, and most (except the motor!) need to be washed and sterilised after/before each use. Cleaning and sterilising the Isis isn't really any more or less fiddly than any other breast pump out there, with the possible exception of the petal massage cushion but that's so comfy that we'll forgive the extra bit of cleaning. If you're making frequent use of the pump you'll probably find a steam steriliser comes in very useful.
Who is it good for?
If you are going to need to express on a daily basis and need to be as efficient as possible, then you'll probably find the Isis iQ comes in very handy. It'll be particularly useful for working mums who need to express during lunch or on breaks. It's certainly significantly more expensive than a manual-only pump but if you ever need to express a lot in a short space of time you'll be glad of the help. In our case, the Isis iQ twice proved indispensable when it came to accumulating 24-hours' worth of milk at very short notice to cover an operation, without it we would most likely have had to resort to formula for one or two of the feeds at least.
