I'm looking for an impartial easy-to-understand comparison reference  
on cheaper breast pumps. Cycling, vacuum, settings, durability,  
battery life, risky features, effectiveness, that sort of thing.

Background with mild rant: I participate in a few online support  
groups, some exclusively for pumping mums and others for general  
parenting topics. Every time the subject of breast pumps starts in  
some of these parenting groups, the mums tend to be asking for advice  
about the very cheapest and most ineffective/dangerous of pumps. I  
explain, sometimes in long detailed screeds after my initial reaction  
of "Nope don't get that one!" is ignored, the reason for a decent  
quality breast pump, and that if they don't have a hundred dollars  
minimum (Australian dollars!) to spend on feeding their baby for the  
next year, perhaps they could consider putting some time and effort  
into learning hand expression which is likely to be less painful and  
more effective than the thirty dollar pumps they're thinking of  
buying or have been given by well-meaning family members. (I try to  
use more polite wording, gentle strokes, and affirmations. but you  
get the general idea.)

I get snorted at and ignored because I've the nerve to suggest such  
ridiculously high amounts of money  just to help maintain  
breastfeeding, which we all know isn't worth that much; appeals to  
formula prices don't seem to make a dent, because "that's different".  
Someone else chimes in with "The XCVYM battery-operated Hellpump(tm)  
is wonderful! I got a whole 50 ml with it one day! And it didn't hurt  
all that much, really!" and off they trot to the pharmacy.

So. I'm looking for an authoritative looking (and preferably  
authoritative!) webpage on breast pump comparison that includes not  
just the big three, but also commonly sold cheaper pumps like Gerber  
Nuk, Pigeon, Tommee Tippee, First Years, Evenflo, Kaneson, that sort  
of level of pump. Preferably comparing them to each other (is any one  
more useful than the others?) as well as to the more expensive manual  
and electric models. Can anyone help?

Dr Lara Hopkins
EPed 14+months

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