Breast pump

I know this question has been asked before on here, but I was after a reccommendation for a good manual (probably) breast pump. I intend to fully breast feed for as long as I am able, but wondered about whether it was worth getting a pump now or waiting to see how things pan out? I would probably only use it to relieve engorgment or any other reason a novice can't think of, hence manual.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

i have an avent isis pump and its really good. easy to use and the avent bottles attach to the bottom.

I'm TERRIFIED of breastfeeding. I really would like to be able to do it, but I have the most sensitive nipples in the world. Before I was pregnant they were sensitive for usually three weeks out of four, and now that I'm pregnant, they just cannot be touched. Not even by me!

Does having really really sensitive nipples make for harder breastfeeding? I'm a wuss.

Claire, I wouldn't get a breast pump until after baby is born. At that point you can make decisions about when you plan to express and how long for etc. I've never had a breast pump but I did use to express milk by hand for Hannah, for one morning a week, until she was around 6mos. It's not as easy as the pump but I didn't think getting a pump was worth it for that.

I personally found expressing and freezing and heating a whole lot of bother so never have with Briona.

Ann - I started Hannah on expressed milk at 2 weeks old, for one feed a day. She didn't have nipple confusion but by a couple of months old had clear preference for the "real" one lol

Thanks for that, I don't intend to return to work while I am exclusively feeding, actually don't really intend to return to work fullstop. So really wanted to have something just in case, but I wasn't really sure what was just in case, so it's been helpful having lots of suggestions, I know now it won't be any help with engorgement, so glad to find that out before I made matters worse.
Thanks everyone for their advice, I think this may well be something I get if and when I need it, manual expressing hadn't really crossed my mind so it might be time to give that some thought too (thanks Teresa)

I've never had to think about my babies when expressing - my milk just lets down all by itself. But then I am a pretty good cow, expressing waaaaay more than even my two babies can guzzle.

I'm using the Avent Isis and finding it better than the electric one I hired. The electric one was good for bringing my milk in but the manual Isis seems to be much faster - I can express 180ml in 10 minutes but it takes 20 on the electric pump.

I second the don't buy one til bubs is born tho. I borrowed an Isis off my midwife when I had Maya for the first month and it was so good that I went out and bought one but it turned out Miss Maya wouldn't take a bottle so I had tons of expressed milk that I ended up chucking and in the end the pump sat in a box until i had the twins. And now it doesn't know what hit it - it's getting so much use!

Er not this time. Sorry Emma. Might stick to just the one first time round

Renee I have sensitive nipples too, and mine are also flat (well more inverted) so breastfeeding was painful for me until HAleigh had drawn out the nipple, I used breast sheilds which helped protect them, I only started expressing because when I got mastitis I bled, and the breast pump really helped out, it wasnt as painful as Haleigh.
But in saying that, I have a friend who had the same thing happen to her what happened to me and she went straight back to breastfeeding after 4wks of expressing and is still doing it a year later, it jsut takes your body a bit to get used too, Im just a sook hehe.

I have a pigeon electric and it was pretty good. only problem i had was not reading the instructions properly (i have the japanese one) and nearly mangling myself in the process. not pretty! but loads of milk. I used mine a few times, but in the end, I didn't really need it. I'm giving mine to my sil. You also may need ot think about gertting a microwave streiliser for your pump.

I just used milton sterilising tablets for mine,and scrubbed mine thoroughly.
I boiled it once a week as sometimes thew tablets leave a residue on it.