Where can I rent a double breast pump cheap?

SingleMumOf2_3

The cheapest I can find is £45 for a fortnight.. and then £45 for every 30 days after that.
I put baby on formula.. as had an operation and couldnt feed for 12 hours.. and it seriously messed up my supply.
He is 5 months old. But now he keeps rejecting the bottle.. and can only fall asleep when on the breast.. but stresses on the breast because the supply isnt there.
I am expressing every 1-2 hours aswell as putting him on as much as I can. It isnt getting my supply to where it needs to be.
The doctor wont prescribe anything to help, and fenugreek isnt helping as much as it did in the early days.
He is now constipated majorly from the formula, and I just dont know what to do anymore. He now goes to dads 1 day and 1 night a week, so needs formula or expressed milk for that time every week (if I could express enough anyway).
He is waking every 30 mins in the night and screaming the house down.. refuses a bottle.. but stresses at the breast.. then finally takes a bottle and has around 7oz.. only to wake 30 mins later.
Occassionally I have enough to give him a full feed.. and then he is a happy little baby.
I have gotten advice on feeding but nothing is working, and I cannot get hold of the person who can help me most.
I feel so stupid for giving into peer pressure and putting him on formula (again). stupid me thought it would solve all problems.
I feel hopeless and like a horrible mum.

Apricot

This is expensive but if you are planning on expressing for a while, it would work out cheaper than renting.

ajaney

NCT

http://www.nct.org.uk/shop/hire-services/breast-pump-hire

mum2twinsx2

i had Medela Mini Electric Plus Double Breastpump was really good is on offer for £60.86 on amazon was really good. i used it for 4months couldnt fault it. x no idea about renting though sorry.

SingleMumOf2_3

its the cost I am struggling with. I can't afford to buy one outright or to pay £45 for 14 days rental otherwise I would of bought one off ebay or amazon

annibee

Hello

Have you had a look on https://www.netmums.com on their nearly new board theres always someone giving one away or selling for like a fiver on their may be worth looking as itll work out cheaper?

Please dont feel like a terrible mum you are doing a really good job

ajaney

Feel for you, breastfeeding can be so difficult. You may have tried these but here are some helplines/organisations who may be able to offer some advice:

http://www.laleche.org.uk/

http://www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/support-centres.html

Your health visitor / childrens centre may be able to help with renting?

Best of luck, you are definately not a horrible Mum, you're trying your best like we all are x

tsstss7

OP like you I had terrible supply issues with my LO and swapped between bottle and breast up until 4 mths. I saw a lactation consultant and she helped to come up with a plan which resolved our issues (with work!) and I'm still BF'ing now (albeit only once a day now). One thing you may need to consider is that the best way to keep up supply is to be feeding a real baby with regularity as expressing doesn't always give some people the stimultion they need to keep supply up. (while some have no problems whatsoever, expressing really didn't help me much at all although it did stop the supply from stopping altogether).

One thing I noticed is you said that your baby is away a day and a night which is really going to impede your efforts. I guess you may have no real choice in this but a poss compromise might be to split the two so that baby is away say overnight on one occasion and then in the day on another. This may help with bf'ing in the early days and will become less neccesary when bf'ing is more established.

Another poss compromise could be for you to get dad to bring baby back for a feed at some point during access if he is unwilling to break up his access time to that extent.

clare64

SingleMum - have you spoken to your Health Visitor?
My Twins would not latch on but I wanted them to have breast milk , so my Health Visitor lent me a portable electric one that I had for 5 months - and it did not cost a penny!
Clarex

tsstss7

Forgot to say also there is an excellent post by feeling good about increasing supply through expressing. If you look on the first few posts in the parenting thread there is a link.

barbiedoll

If you're expressing as well as breast-feeding then you're probably not giving your breasts time to fill up inbetween. Stop expressing for a couple of days and just breast-feed as much as you can. If you need to top-up with formula then maybe try cup feeding? It can be a little messy but it may stop your baby getting crabby with the bottle. Don't beat yourself up over using formula because you couldn't feed for a while, a lot of us have been browbeaten into using formula for similar reasons, it doesn't make us bad parents!

You say that he is getting constipated from the formula, try giving him some cooled boiled water with a teaspoon or two of fresh orange juice in it. (From a real orange, not a carton) This is an old midwives remedy, don't tell your H/V, she will go on and on about ruining his teeth etc etc, it honestly won't do him any harm once in a while.

There is nothing that your GP can prescribe to enhance your milk production and fenugreek has no reliable evidence to back up claims that it helps, although many people swear by it. The best way to up your supply is to feed, feed, feed, as much as you possibly can. The stressing out at the breast is typical behaviour of newborn infants who will feed mostly at night when the prolactin hormone especially active. They will suckle a lot to promote the milk production but get fussy because there is not much milk available. Your baby is doing the same thing, this is not because either of you are doing anything wrong, he is just doing his instinctive thing to get your breasts to do their thing!

To be honest, I don't think you need a double pump, too much expressing may end up hurting you and a single pump, (expressing from one and feeding from the other) should be sufficient. As others have said, have a word with your H/V or even try to speak to the breast-feeding co-ordinator at your hospital, they may be able to lend you a hospital machine.
I work in maternity services and am a trained BF helper/mentor, please feel free to PM me if you would like to, ok?
Good luck, you're doing a grand job to get this far, stay strong and chill out a bit, you'll both get there in the end!