Ameda Purely Yours Breast Pump with Carryall

Product Review (submitted on July 25, 2009):

When I was looking for a pump, my top choices were Medela Pump In Style and Ameda Purely Yours. They're both comparable in features and reputation, and I chose Ameda for two reasons:

1. Breast milk is better protected from exposure to the environment. The Purely Yours pump accomplishes this by using a patented diaphragm to create a barrier, which protects the pump and tubing from contamination. (Ameda has obtained FDA clearance to make this claim.)

2. It's cheaper than the Medela.

Having used this pump for almost 4 months, I confidently say that I absolutely love it. Here are the reasons why:

1. Milk goes directly from the horns (the parts that go to the breast) to the bottle (through a small valve). I like the fact that milk does not go through any tubes or the pump body. There are only 3 parts to wash (the horns, the valve, and the diaphragm), and they wash very easily.

2. It's powerful, yet comfortable. In fact, this pump was easier on my nipples than my baby. Sometimes, my nipples got really sore from breastfeeding and I pumped and fed the baby with expressed milk to give my nipples a break.

3. Very portable. I've taken this pump everywhere - to parties, work, on trips, shopping. It takes 6 AA batteries, which is very convenient, because they're easily available.

4. Reasonably fast. It takes about 15-20 minutes to pump each breast until the second letdown. Unfortunately, I haven't yet learned how to pump both breasts at the same time. So it takes about 30-40 minutes to pump both breasts. I hope to one day master the two-breasts-at-a-time technique to cut the pumping time in half.

5. Batteries last for 3-4 40-minute pumping sessions. I consider that quite long. This pump has a powerful motor, and I would be happy if I would get even 1 session. I usually pump at home where I have an outlet and use the batteries only occasionally. But if you plan to use this pump on the road most of the time, get rechargable batteries.

6. Accepts any standard size bottle. I wanted to use the glass bottles, and used Evenflo Classic Glass bottles without a problem.

7. Cheaper and lighter than the Medela Pump In Style (my other top choice)

There are two things that I do not like about this pump. They are:

1. The car charger adapter that I got does not fit into any car charger! I somehow was able to get it into the Toyota Corolla charger, but almost took the dashboard out when I was trying to get the adapter out. Perhaps I have a faulty adapter, but I've never tried again.

2. The horns break if used heavily. The part that screws onto the bottle cracks, and then breaks. This happened to both horns, and I had to get replacement horns ((...)).

Despite the car charger adapter issue and the breaking horns, I love this pump. It helps me maintain my milk supply and build a freezer stash for emergency use. I would recommend this to anyone.