The Medela Symphony pump is hands down the best pump that is available on the market. Like most of the other reviewers I started out using this pump in the hospital. When my baby was born a few months ago he went directly to the NICU, I didn’t get to hold him other than for a few moments right after he was born. I wasn’t able to hold him let alone try to breastfeed him due to all of the wires and tubes. So very shortly after birth one of the nurses brought by a Medela Symphony pump and encouraged me to pump every 3 hours round the clock to establish my milk supply. Thank goodness that she did that, because otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been able to breastfeed since my baby didn’t get to come home until a week after I was discharged.
I rented the Medela Symphony pump from a supplier that the hospital recommended, and continued building my supply. When my baby came home I was mostly breastfeeding him, but also using the Medela Symphony pump to try and make my body produce more milk. The Medela Symphony pump is really awesome – I used a cheaper Medela Pump InStyle with my daughter 4 years ago, and the Medela Symphony pump is SO MANY steps above the InStyle that I’m surprised that they are even made by the same company.
However, it’s really convenient that they ARE the same company, because you can use the same pump parts such as the flanges (the horn things that go on the breasts), the membranes, the bottles, etc. The only thing that you have to get that is proprietary to the Medela Symphony pump is the tube kit that includes the membrane caps that attach the hoses to the pump motor. I personally didn’t have to buy the kit, because the hospital provided me with a set to use with their Medela Symphony pump when I was there, and encouraged me to take it home with me because I ended up renting a pump. So if you are in the hospital and are using a Medela Symphony pump or plan on buying one, make sure that you ask for the membrane and tube kit from the lactation consultant or your nurse, because otherwise you will have to buy it separately, and I believe that they run around $30 or so.
As my Medela Symphony pump rental was running out I dragged out my 4 year old InStyle pump, and it seemed like the motor was dying. So I ordered a new “hospital grade” pump of a different brand. It was SO UNCOMFORTABLE to use that I considered just scrapping the whole thing, and just letting nature take it’s course and not actively try to keep my supply up. However, my husband was very encouraging to me, and it was very important to both of us for our baby to get breastmilk as long as possible, and that meant that I needed to pump not only an extra time or two per day to keep my supply up, but also when the baby started sleeping through the night to keep things going.
So I ended up buying my very own Medela Symphony pump when I had two days left on my hospital rental. And it was the best decision ever. The Medela Symphony pump is so gentle on my poor sore chest, and it gets out ounces of milk where my InStyle was just struggling. I LOVE my Medela Symphony pump.
Of course, the main (and only that I can think of) drawback about the Medela Symphony pump is of course the price. However, if I didn’t go ahead and buy the Medela Symphony pump my milk probably would have dried up when my baby started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks old. And since he isn’t even quite 3 months left, that would have been about 9 months worth of formula that I would have had to buy. So I kind of figure that the cost if kind of a toss-up, I just had to pay for the pump up front instead of spreading the cost of formula out over the next 9 months. And of course, I can always sell this Medela Symphony pump when I’m done with it and try and re-coup some of my initial cost.
Very long story short – This is a wonderful pump that works awesomely and was a Godsend to my family. I would recommend this pump to any woman who is having any challenges with breastfeeding such as a NICU stay, a C-Section, poor latch, etc.
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