Thursday, April 29, 2010

Breast Pump Review (Indian Market) -- Core

Renu did a great job in summarizing her experience in buying and using the pump, I will do mine.

Pumps in India that are available to common man are like auto horns and are as crude in extraction milk.. it is not wrong if I say the pain getting milk out with that is a 100 times more than the delivery pains itself. No matter what people say there is not much awareness still about breastfeeding and the importance of it in India. We hear more instances of no milk or very less milk in India, especially in the middle class or rich social strata.. the poor have no choice but try their best and I sometimes envy the kids for their luck to be able to feed on the purest form of feeding, fresh milk from mom.

I feel that a breastfed kid is truly the luckiest kid but no issues, the formulas available are just about equal if not more good for the kid. The cleaning, sterilizing, the pain, the agony, nothing is a match to the BM feeding.

There are still a lot of misconceptions about pumping, no one really asks us to go for them, unless we are aware ourselves I hardly know any hospital which suggests the use. The nipple shield, the auto horn pump, manual extraction but not the pump.. strange.. but thanks to the world being a global village, a lot of us know what our counterparts in the west use and by our own choice we go for it..

The ones available in the market are from Germany, Singapore/Malaysia, and US.. Pigeon also has one but I havent really checked on it. I chose Core, the German made product, dual mode operation, with 2 contains costing somewhere around 3K, cost effective and good to use. The cleaning equipment and suction material are good. The sucking feel that comes with the pump is said to enhance the supply by giving the baby suckling feeling. The suction works good. However, it works good with real full potential only in an electric socket or a brand new battery setting. So, even when there is battery support feature, I had to rely completely on the AC option.

My mom and uncle had gotten it for me when I was is the hospital and there were not much choices in the store, but I am told time and again by moms in US that Medela is the best option.

Per my experience, Core is good, affordable, compact but then again I havent used Medela to compare to it.. Let us wait for Keerthi's review on it.

I also saw Pigeon and Tolly Joy pumps but did not either like the features, pump, or the accessories that come with it. Tolly Joy and Pigeon give you around 6 months to 1 year warranty but Core comes with no warranty whatsoever. I used it and passed it on to my friend, she is using it currently and will hopefully pass it on to another mother just changing the containers.. no issues so far (tw).

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