Question for SAHMs and Part-time working moms

Charmndmom · August 2015

So I discovered a couple days ago that my insurance doesn't cover breast pumps because it is a grandfathered plan. My plan for when the baby comes is to leave my job and hopefully find part time work after staying at home for at least three months. So I'm wondering if I should just get a manual pump since I could be home for longer than three months and/or with a part time job I might not need to pump at work very often. Is that naive? Do I need a regular pump even while staying at home?

ammnam14 · August 2015

I will be staying home as well and have never thought of this. Great question! I'll be following this thread.

MorganW24 · August 2015

I had a hand held manual pump with my first. I stay at home so the only time I needed to pump was for date nights away from baby. I have the Tommee Tippee manual pump and it works great. I also bought a single avent electric pump when we went on vacation, my son bunked with grandma a couple of nights and hung out with various aunts throughout the day and I had to pump a lot more. I would say a manual pump is great to have on hand for when you do need to pump. If you want to upgrade a little I think my single electric pump was about $115, and it also works great!

Mizuiro007 · August 2015

I think it still depends a little on use. Since insurance covered it, I got an electric pump. They wouldn't pay for it until after baby was here so late in the vein when my mill came in and I was painfully engorged, baby wasn't keeping up, hand expressing was felt like baling out a bath tub full of water with just a thimble...hubby ran out and got me a manual.

I used the manual most. I continued to have overproduction problems so I'd pump just enough after each feeding to feel comfortable. Using it so much my hand would get tired after a while with the manual so then the electric was nice. The electric just felt like more work to set up though so ultimately I'd go back to the manual. To do it all this time, I'd just use the manual and deal with a tiredifferent hand.

I'm sorry if this post is a bit long and rambling. I'm exhausted and not all there.

GalLaura · August 2015

I hated my manual pump. My advice is electric pump all the way!!

littleSkittle14 · August 2015

I bought a manual, used it once. Made me feel like a cow being milked. I just nursed my baby whenever she or I needed it.

Granted, this gives you limited "freedom" from baby, since he/she will want to eat every few hours. But if that won't bother you, I would say skip the pump.

If you're planning to use it only a few times, for date nights or an afternoon away, I'd say manual (due to cost)

If you think you'll want to pump frequently, (like to make a bottle for dad to do a daily feeding or something like that) then I'd think electric would be your best bet.

Cmagno · August 2015

I work part time (2 days a week) and can't imagine using a manual on my work days. I actually used a hospital grade pump at my work for DD but loved having my medela at home for pumping for extra stash and date nights. Bfing to a year plus was a huge goal of mine so I wanted to set myself up for success, so the extra money made sense to me. Good luck!

Rratledge · August 2015

I'm a SAHM and my insurance covered an electric pump, but it was going to take weeks to come in after the baby was born. I needed a pump to help my supply come in since I was having trouble getting my son to latch. My husband got me the Medela manual pump and it was great! My son never latched properly so I used this one for the majority of the 9 months that I exclusively pumped for him. I would strongly recommend it!

JulieK79 · August 2015

I think it really depends on if you're going to pump at work and how long you will be working each day. Even just working a couple days a week, I couldn't have gone the whole day at work without pumping. I would be too full and I'm assuming my milk production would've gone done. Manual pumping also takes a longer time that an electric pump which was necessary since I didn't have that long of a break to pump. If you want your LO to have breast milk while you are away at home, you may have to pump at home as well to have enough for baby while you are away.

herewegrow · August 2015

SAHM here, I couldn't imagine using a manual pump. You can get a inexpensive single electric/battery one that works great and it is wonderful for travel. I used mine a ton. I also had a double electric and found I got considerably more milk that way than one side at a time. If you plan to pump to build up a stash, a double is the way to go! Maybe give it a few weeks with a cheaper single before you make the investment?

Charmndmom · August 2015

Thank you guys for all you input. We will be switching insurance after the baby comes since I'll be leaving my job, so perhaps my new insurance will happen to cover it since it seems like half of you recommend getting an electric still. Thanks!

CCsep · August 2015

I'm not sure what the minimum financial requirements are but my friend got a double electric from WIC for completely free. Look into that! And also, you can get breast pumps second hand. I know that kind of freaks some people out, but I am all about second hand stuff!

chelseymmcghee · August 2015

My insurance doesn't cover mine either since it is too, a grandfathered plan.

What I ended up doing was actually going on Ebay! I didn't want to buy used, but often times display models or floor models that are brand new, just out of the box are listed on there. I ended up getting a Medula electric breast pump for $140. Everything was brand new, in the originally wrappers and packaging. The only thing that was on the "floor" to view was the actual pump part. This one retails for about $300 so I scored a deal.

Just a thoight.

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