The shape is also somehow too round and too conical. To walk around with the pump, you can clip it to your waistband, but if you’re wearing a dress or jumpsuit, you just have to hold it, which is not ideal. The control panel isn’t very intuitive (for example, the 0 setting is actually the strongest suction for some reason).

You pour directly from the pump into a bag or bottle, and I didn’t have much spillage or milk loss in the transfer.Ĭons: The setup was challenging (I needed to call customer service), and the tube that fuels the pump is very long and kind of got in my way, which also means it’s not as discreet under clothing as the ones without tubing. And this may be a small pro, but you charge it with a standard micro-USB charger, which even my sleep-deprived brain can always find. You can definitely move around while wearing it and wear any nursing bra you have (it’s handy to have a clip-down nursing bra to wear most of the wearables, but you could probably get away with a stretchy sports bra too).

It’s also super-lightweight (if you’re considering the Nuk, it’s the same pump under a different name) and easy to clean, and it’s one of the least expensive. Pros: The best part of the Freemie Liberty is that it’s almost silent when it’s on. Because it probably won’t be your only pump, owning a wearable is a bit of a luxury, but for someone like me, who is running after two other children most of the day, it’s worth it. Lots of breastfeeding people report a lower milk output and/or feeling like their breasts aren’t fully emptied when they use a wearable pump, so you might want to consider your wearable as a backup/secondary pump for when you really need the convenience, like at work, or when you need to pump while making dinner. One caveat before we begin: As a third-time pumping parent who is exclusively pumping for my 6-month-old, I have a naturally high supply of milk and respond pretty well to any pump I try. You can usually get a discount on them through your insurance, and you can almost always use health-spending-account or flex-spending-account money, if you have it, on pumps, parts, and accessories.)

(Worth noting: Under the Affordable Care Act, your insurance is required to cover a breast pump for you, but the wearables are rarely offered as one of the free models. That said, no pump is perfect, and they can have some downsides, too. Wearable pumps are definitely convenient and often quieter than their traditional counterparts. These wearable breast pumps collect milk into a boob-shaped bra insert rather than a bottle, with the goal of making breast pumping more discreet (you can keep your shirt on and you don’t need a dedicated pumping bra) and more manageable (you can accomplish more on your never-ending parent to-do list if you’re not forced to be plugged into the wall, or walking around with milk bottles dangling precariously from your chest). In the past few years, the classic horn-shaped breast pumps (the best-known of which are the Spectras, which we’ve reviewed before, and the Medela Symphony, which you often find at hospitals, though there are many others) have gotten a slew of new competitors known as wearables. Photo-Illustration: The Strategist Photos: Retailers

Top rated hands free breast pump