Looking for cheap electric breast pumps? Well…Stop!
When you decide to breastfeed your baby, you may decide to search for cheap electric breast pumps in order to find one that will let you get a break from your baby, but not cost you very much.
Don’t make this mistake!
We realize that there are so many breast pumps out there that it is easy to get overwhelmed and many women just look at price, but experienced mothers will tell you…all breast pumps are not created equal!
Therefore, it is important to figure out what is the best breast pump for you and your situation.
For help finding the best breast pump for you, click here.
A good breast pump can have a big impact by helping nursing mothers continue to breastfeed longer than many of them otherwise would.
In fact, some nursing mothers actually consider their breast pumps to be as important as car seats, baby wipes, and diapers! It doesn’t matter whether you are going back to work or just need a breast pump occasionally to relieve engorgement, quality does matter.
The Risks of Cheap Breast Pumps
When you come across a product priced substantially lower than comparable products on the market, you can assume that corners were cut to slash the price. Either a startup company is trying to grab a share of the market quickly by undercutting competitors or the product is inferior to competing products in some way.
In the case of a new company pricing low while building a brand and gaining customers, you can expect prices to eventually go up. For breast pumps, cheap products are usually designed with low-quality materials and/or with faster processing and assembly measures that reduce the effectiveness and possibly the safety of the final product. Whatever the manufacturer had to do to get the price so low, it’s not good for you or your baby.
When you compare a cheap electric pump to a really good pump made from higher quality materials and more attention to safety and convenience, you will notice the following differences:
* Efficiency – Cheap pumps are typically less efficient than higher quality competitors. The loss of efficiency means you will spend more time pumping, and even then, you may never pump out as much milk as you might in just 10 or 20 minutes with a better pump. In fact, while a good pump may be able to express 10 ounces in 10 minutes, a lesser pump may take 45 minutes to get only six ounces. (What new mother has time for that?)
Some women cannot even get a letdown with a cheap pump so it doesn’t work for them at all.
In fact we have met moms who said “I just can’t pump!” or “I can’t produce enough milk now that I pump.” But guess what? It was not THE MOM, but it was just the pump that they bought. They tried to go get a cheap pump and it ended up not working for them at all.
When they tried a nice efficient pump….they COULD not only pump but they could actually pump A LOT of breast milk.
* Physical Discomfort – The more time you spend pumping, the more vulnerable you are to sore, swollen nipples or even dried out skin that becomes itchy or that cracks. A bad pump could leave you pumping for 45 minutes or even an hour straight, and they aren’t always gentle on your nipples in the process. You may end up experiencing a lot of pain that isn’t necessary for breastfeeding moms today.
* Wasted Time – Why spend an hour pumping the same amount of milk that a good pump could help you express in 20 minutes or less? The difference between a cheap pump and a quality pump could really make that much of a difference. Breastfeeding and pumping are already time consuming, and you don’t want to make it worse by using an inefficient pump.
* Frustration – As a new mother, your emotional health is extremely important. You’re likely to pump while sleep deprived and desperate for a few minutes to yourself, so you don’t need the frustration of a pump that just doesn’t work. For women who believe that they can’t express milk properly with a pump, the issue is almost always with the pump rather than the woman.
The Real Cost of a Cheap Electric Pump
The cost of your electric pump isn’t always the sticker price that you pay. Cheap pumps are more likely to break easily or to stop functioning before your baby is old enough to switch to solid foods. That means you end up purchasing multiple pumps to feed one growing baby, which substantially increases the cost of pumping breast milk.
In many cases, you can purchase one high-quality pump that will last for years for the same price as two cheap electric pumps. You can save yourself from pain, lost time and aggravation by investing in the higher quality pump from the start. That increases the chance that your pump will meet your needs as your baby grows, and you won’t find yourself ordering a new pump in the near future.
Keep in mind that even cheap pumps with great reviews online can let you down. Many consumers leave product reviews shortly after purchasing and trying a new product. They don’t go back to update those reviews months down the line when the product fails to live up to expectations.
Additional Risks for Secondhand or Shared Pumps
If you need to invest money in a high-quality pump, you may try to get around the cost by sharing a pump with another mom or purchasing secondhand. These choices come with some unique risks.
When you share a pump with another mother, your breast milk may become tainted from bacteria and even disease present in the other woman’s breast milk. The milk that women produce is a bodily fluid not much different from blood when it comes to the potential to spread yeast infections and even diseases like hepatitis and HIV.
Hospital-grade breast pumps with closed systems are the only exception to the rule of not sharing a pump with another woman. Those pumps are designed to work with separate pump kits for each woman, ensuring that fluids from different mothers never mix. If you intend to share a pump with one or more women, investing in that type of pump is advisable.
What about secondhand pumps? The risk of contracting yeast, bacteria or disease are just as high as sharing a pump. In this case, you may not even know the person who use the pump before you. Even if the pump appears clean, you can’t always easily see bacteria, yeast and other small particles that could become a threat to the quality of your breast milk.
Getting the Best Price for the Highest Quality Pump
If you need to invest in a high-quality breast pump and shared or secondhand pumps come with heightened risk, where does that leave you? If you have a tight budget, there are some things that you can do to get the pump that you deserve without allowing it to become a financial hardship:
- Let your close friends and relatives know that a quality breast pump is your biggest need. If they’re aware of that before your baby shower and you place a quality pump on your baby registry, you’re more likely to get the pump you need as a gift.
- See if your health insurance will cover the purchase or rental of a quality pump. Some health plans include this coverage, so it’s worth checking. Just keep in mind that rental pumps aren’t always the best quality and should be closed systems that don’t put your breast milk at risk for contamination from previous renters.
- Use sales, coupons and rebate programs. There are so many stores and online retailers that sell breast pumps today that someone is likely to have a quality pump on sale at some point each month. If you shop around with a bargain in mind, you may find a great price on the perfect pump. Rakuten and other rebate programs will allow you to collect cash back on your purchase if you buy from one of the retailers participating in the program.
Your breast pump will actually save you money if you breastfeed exclusively. You won’t have to pay for expensive baby formula and a collection of bottles, nipples and artificial warmers. Think of a quality pump as an investment that will keep your baby healthy for many years to come.
So just don’t waste your money on a cheap breast pump. You will be much happier with a good quality pump. It will keep you breastfeeding happily longer…which in the end, saves even more on formula and makes for a happy mommy and a happy baby.
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