How important is it to bring this along with you to the hospital?
I wanted to wait to buy one until I was sure that I would be successful, but I have read that you should bring your pump along with you to the hospital. Now I dont' know what to do. I would hate to spend ~$250 and then it not work out.
Any thoughts?
Re: Breast pump question
Not important at all. Barring something out of the ordinary, there's no need to pump for quite some time (for example, I didn't start pumping until my son was 4 weeks old to give us a chance to establish BF-ing/supply first, and then I pumped at work until he was over a year old). While you're in the hospital, you're just going to be working on latch and baby will get colostrum. Milk probably won't even be in by the time you're released.
If it turns out you're someone who needs to pump for some reason, your H or someone else can always run to Target or Babies'r'Us.
I'm not planning on bringing mine. The hospital provides hand pumps if it's necessary since most mom's don't get their milk in while in the hospital and the hand pump is enough if they don't want to BF.
Mine is still in the box in case I need to return it for some reason. I've already returned one to Target to get a better price and as long as you didn't remove the "don't remove this sticker" sticker it was no problem returning the pump.
House / Baby blog
I brought mine last time. *But*, I did so because I knew I was going back to work in a week....so I had to jump start my supply and work on a stash from day one (between regular nursings). LC said that was a smart move. I had a stash within days.
Other than a situation like that, there is no need (unless you want some help from LC there on set-up, etc)
Bump Unofficial Glossary
DD1, Kathleen 9/15/2007