HARRISON LOVES: Medela Swing Maxi Double Electric Breastpump

Okay, so not much of a Harrison loves, more of a Laura loves here, but the Medela Swing Maxi Double Electric Breastpump was a must have for me during my breastfeeding experience and was something I thought would be worth sharing with those who are/are considering breastfeeding.

For me, breastfeeding was something that I loved to do, it gave me a special bonding time with my baby that no one could take away and gave me the opportunity to provide for Harrison in a way that nobody else could, whilst also having the nicest cuddles. However, as lovely as cuddles and the feeling of providing everything Harrison needed was, with a hungry baby, there's no getting around it- it was tough.

Fortunately for me, I didn't experience any pain with breastfeeding. I don't know if that's because I was expecting horrific nipple torture because of horror stories I had been told of previously, or just because I was a "lucky one", but fortunately the experience was pretty pain free. However, what I did have, was extremely leaky boobs which would on most days, leak through doubled up super absorbent breast pads and even leave my nursing vests dripping wet within two hours. No exaggeration.

From around five months into my pregnancy, I was producing colostrum and very soon (almost immediately) after Harrison was born, I was producing enough Milk to feed a whole bundle of babies.

This meant that the besides having a gorgeous new baby to look after and love, one of my first experiences of being a mum was me and every spare moment being consumed by breast milk.

Feeding a hungry Harrison, meant having him on the boob every 2 and a half hours throughout the day, which when you put into perspective of feeding, winding and changing- the cycle was never ending. The more I fed, the more milk I produced, so I very quickly decided that every evening, I would express a couple of bottles for the following morning, just to give me and my nipples some "time off".

Once Harrison had gone down to sleep of an evening, I'd spend around half an hour with my Medela Swing Maxi and very quickly pump two bottles of 4-5oz ready for the following day. After all, there was no point in wasting milk.

The Medela Swing Maxi took away a little bit of the strain and made things a little easier for me. Although I spent what was probably the only free time I had in the evenings expressing milk, it was cut a lot shorter than it would have been had I used another pump due to its double pump feature- meaning I could do two boobs at a time.

With its range of vacuum levels and two phase expression technology, the nipple is first stimulated to imitate a baby sucking and then pumped at a slower speed when the Milk flows, which has some science behind it, making it quicker and more effective.

Other than giving me a bit of "time off", I loved that the Swing Maxi was so quiet and so easily assembled and cleaned. I ran it off of mains power whilst I was sat on the sofa, but it can also be run by battery, where you can also clip the unit onto you. I found it comfortable to use, and again, it didn't cause any pain or discomfort which I'm really pleased about.

For those of you that are breastfeeding and are looking to express as either a short or long term solution, I really do recommend the Medela Swing Maxi. I'm not sure I recommend you buying it before your baby is here, just incase you don't get on with breastfeeding at all, but it's certainly worth thinking about- I know some stocklists have a longer returns policy!

The Medela Swing Maxi Double Electric Pump comes with two breastfeeding bottles and a Calma feeding device and retails for about £239.99 in Mothercare and John Lewis.