Hands-Free Breast Pumps – Which Ones are Worth the Buy?

Throw a random pack of cards filled out with different mom-headaches and ask a room of nursing moms to read through and pick just one card that resonates strongly with them. It’s guaranteed that a lot of them will pick one card. And that card would read: “I hate how noisy, uncomfortable, and limiting traditional electric breast pumps can get” . Okay maybe that’s an exaggeration but indeed, traditional breast pumps changed the lives of mothers however, they are mostly clunky and truly limiting especially for working moms that can’t always afford to breastfeed on-the-go. How can something deemed an absolute necessity be such a pain? 

Thankfully, a set of ingenious individuals came up with the idea of a hands-free breast pump. But another set of absolutely amazing individuals sought to make things even more seamless and arrived at three unique hands-free breast pumps that fit snugly right in your bra – because let’s be honest, not a lot of moms like the idea of two bottles dangling down a tube across their midriff. What these bra-fitted pumps achieved is that you can pump anytime, wherever, whenever doing whatever, however. What’s something moms love more than multi-tasking? 

We’ll be reviewing these three breast pumps today.

First up is the Willow breast pump.

WILLOW BREAST PUMP

“Quiet enough to use on a conference call”  is the most popular tagline associated with this product. 

The Willow Breast Pump, unlike most breast pumps out there features a simple, no-multiple-steps design that comprises 24 pcs of 4oz milk bags, 2 flanges, two breast-shaped pumps, 2 one-way flex tubes alongside other accessories like 2 cleaning brushes, 2 carrying bags and a charger. The steps get a lot less decluttered as the pump encases the flanges and milk bags and there are no trails of tubes hanging out. Its noiseless standout feature is aided by a motor so quiet you’re tempted to do double-checks to see if its indeed pumping. 

To pump, all you need do is cup the pump just right over your breasts and hold firmly in place with a nursing bra– No tubes hanging, no spillage whatsoever. Want to reach for a pen that fell off the table? You can do just that without fear of spillage. The pump is usually used tandem with the app that tells you when you’ve gotten the breast-to-pump orientation right.

It comes in 24mm or 27mm. Flanges can be purchased in 21mm, 24mm, and 27mm.

The Willow has reusable milk containers to pump directly into and pour straight into a bottle for convenience.

Pros:

• Noiseless to a certain extent.
• Super comfortable to use while putting on makeup, whipping up a quick meal of pancakes, traveling, driving, or in transit.
• Its design makes it super easy to clean.
• Medical-grade silicone flange that assures you that your pumping material will not in any way pose a risk health-wise for your baby.
• It scores super high in the discrete-pumping department and thus is suitable to be worn in public spaces. Just don’t wear tight-fitting clothing while pumping and you’re good.
• It takes things a notch higher with an app that lets you know how much milk you express per pump, How-to-use videos, and extra support service for whatever questions you may have.

Cons: 

• Issues with the app reporting breast-to-pump orientation problems when in fact something else is the problem like perhaps the milk bag not properly pushed in. So there you are, fumbling unnecessarily with your breasts when in fact the real problem has got to do with something inside the pump. For first-time users, it takes a little bit of adapting to get the hang of this. 
• You can only charge one pump at a time and it’s not compatible with regular USB ports as it comes with its own specific charger-type. 
• It gets quite difficult getting all the milk out of the pump to the bag when the pump runs out of power.
• The milk bags limit transferability and won’t quite fill up to its actual 4oz volume which means you have to use twice as many milk bags as you’d normally need. In addition, they’re for one-time-use and don’t come cheap. You can however use the reusable containers.

Price: $499.99 

ELVIE BREAST PUMP

Elvie pumps are kind of similar to the Willow pump but rather than milk bags, they come with two 5oz milk bottles. Instead of a flexitube, you’d see a valve and seal system that creates the suction pressure for the whole pumping exercise. It also spots an app that lets you monitor your expressed milk volume since you can’t exactly look down to check for this because of where the collecting bottle is positioned.

It comes with 24mm and 28mm breast shields. 21mm can be purchased seperately.

Pros:

• It’s portable.
• You can interchange a single pump to use on both breasts. So when you need to make up for the lower volume a particular breast has expressed, you can top up with the other side.
• It is cost-effective since you can interchange a single pump on both breasts. The downside is just that you’d spend more time expressing this way than you would with double pumps.
• You can control pumping activities via the app.
• Noiseless to a great degree.
• Compatible with regular USB ports and can thus be charged anywhere you find a USB port. 

Cons:

• The app is said to be not so reliable as it frequently gives incorrect volume outputs.
• Cases of spillage have been recorded when you attempt to do some things in certain positions. 
• More rigorous cleaning is needed.

Price: $249 for a single pump and about $470 for double pumps.

FREEMIE LIBERTY BREAST PUMP

Freemie, on the other hand, spots a little difference from the two previously listed pumps in that the motor is positioned away from the milk bags that are attached via tubes to the pumping cups. So while the pumping cups still fit in your bra, two tubes jut out from your under-bosom while pumping and then the motor is fitted like a walkie-talkie on your hip area. So that translates into more parts you need to clean up and fit together when you want to use.

It comes in 25mm and 28mm Funnels.

Pros:

• Also compatible with regular USB ports.
• Spots a really decent battery life.
• Weighs lighter than the Elvie and Willow pumps.
• There’s a separate output for the suction level and the cycle level meaning you can control how hard you want to be milked and at what concurrent intervals too all of which can be viewed on an LCD screen. This feature helps to get your milk expressed faster than normal.
• There’s a memory-like feature that lets you save your favorite pumping modes for future pumpings. So instead of trying to remember what suction level you were most comfortable with, you can just save your favorite setting. 

Cons:

• You can’t really do so much while pumping.
• Not quite discrete because of the tubes and all of that.
• The volume markings may be difficult to read for some.
• Not dish washer-compatible.

Price: $299.95

JUXTAPOSING ALL THREE…

BREAST PUMP SIZE

In terms of size and thus discreteness, you’d be more discrete with an Elvie pump as it protrudes less than the other two. The breast-like shape is further enhanced with its rounded bottle bottom and pod-like top. Right next to it in size is the Freemie pump and then the Willow pump which will probably have you looking like a silicone queen in tight-fitted tops. However, discreteness with the Freemie pump scores much lower as you have to go about with tubes emerging from out of your bra and a not-so-pretty motor positioned around your waist.

NOISE 

The Freemie pump, when put on the highest suction strength, lowkey sounds like something off Black Eyed Peas’ Tonight’s Gonna Be A Good Night song. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating, but it does give rhythmic sounds you can kinda bop your head to. But maybe if you shield properly with a jacket or something you can probably muffle the sounds out. The Elvie pump takes the Noiseless Crown department because it gives off sounds that’ll easily be drowned out by the little talks here and there in an office hub. The Willow pump in comparison to the other two gave off the loudest nipple-grabbing sounds. But as the real suction begins, the noise tapers off to a lot less noise than it started off with.

MOBILITY

So while you’ll be looking like a silicone queen with a Willow pump, you get a dash of freedom and liberty to do a wide range of activities and positions with a Willow pump. I even read somewhere that you can do yoga positions while pumping with it though I don’t know how true that is as my body is even too stiff to maintain a shoe-lace-tying position for more than 30 seconds. Oh, and if you have to lace your shoes, with a Willow pump, there’d be no spillage. 

If you were to try these activities with the Elvie or Freemie pump, on the other hand, you’d make it “rain”. The Freemie pump is especially very movement-limiting.

BLUETOOTH PAIRING

All except the Freemie come with a volume-monitoring app that pairs up with the device via BlueTooth. What however sets both apart is in the app accuracy when outputting correct volume expressed and Elvie falls flat in this area. The Willow breast pump takes this one. What you can do on the Elvie app is control suction and pump activities via the app, a feature the Willow app doesn’t offer. And the Freemie? No app, guys. 

BATTERY LIFE

The Elvie pump takes the dunk here as it only lasts about 1hr 20 mins. With the Willow pump, you get a total average pump session of about 2 hours before the battery runs out. The Lithium crown goes to the Freemie pump which gives you an average total pump time of almost 3 hours before it goes flat.

TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF EXPRESSED MILK.

It helps to be relaxed and conjure thoughts of your baby if they’re not anywhere around you. Also, breathing in scents of your baby stimulates oxytocin hormone production, which helps increase milk production and on the baby’s part, induces calm and tranquility while being fed.

In addition to this, mimic your baby’s feeding time when setting your pump schedule. At this point, your body has learned the optimal times to increase breast-milk production so it pays to take advantage of this.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

To fully decide on which to go for, it’d help to factor in what’s most important to you:

Volume? Mobility? Ease of Cleaning? Time Expended? Insurance-covered?