My Ultimate Guide for Finding the Best Breast Pump
Continue Reading for my Best Breast Pump Comparison:
– Elvie Breast Pump Review – Momcozy Breast Pump Review – Wren Breast Pump Review –
+ Must Have pumping products to make things even easier!

When I was deciding which breast pumps to buy for my breastfeeding and pumping journey I agonised FOR MONTHS. There are so many out there and some of those come with a hefty, hefty price tag. 

How do you know which ones are worth the £’s and which ones are worth buying?

This post contains affiliate links. These links do not affect how much you pay but xameliax does earn a small commission if you decide to buy. These links often come with discounts for you (woo!) and they help me to keep writing free and helpful articles such as this, so thank you. I will be talking about both products I have bought myself and products that were sent to me at xameliax by brands to try (with no obligation to post). As always I only recommend products I truly love regardless of how they arrived at my door – ad –

During my search for the best breast pump I came across three brands that kept showing up: Elvie, Momcozy, and MyWren. All three offered hands-free wearable breast pumps but at three very different price points….so I got them all! And I’ve been testing them out over the last 8 months to bring you an open, in-depth and honest review to find the best breast pump on the market!

From £65-£500 …which breast pump is the best pump and which should you spend your money on?

The pumps I’ll be reviewing in this article are:

The Momcozy s12 – £69.99 
The MyWren – £97.99
(You can use code ‘XAMELIAX’ with Wren for 10% off which makes them only £88.19!)
The Elvie Original – £269 

*Prices accurate at time of publishing. Feel free to click through for any current deals or increases.

For reference: I have 34FF boobs and at the time of writing this I have been breastfeeding for the last 8 and a bit months. At the start I battled an oversupply and lightening let down which made my journey a little tricky but we got through and my breastfeeding journey has been absolutely beautiful.
If you’d like to read more about it I wrote a whole post here.

As part of our breastfeeding journey I pump and store milk for the occasional bottle. We have a freezer stash for emergencies and I will pump milk for a bottle if I need to be apart from my baby during the day for whatever reason (or if we fancy a glass or two of wine at the weekend!). We use pumped milk less these days as he’s weaning and his milk feeds are fewer and far between, but it’s been a lifesaver for us as a parenting team to allow my husband to help during the nights, allow me to get a break if needed and also for the bonding between daddy and son. And it’s all been made very easy by having a hands-free breast pump. 

The main benefits of a hands-free pump is that you can do pretty much anything else whilst pumping. You’re not tied to the sofa and a hefty static machine. There’s no wires. They simply sit in your bra and you can multitask while you make milk! I often pump while I’m doing the washing up in the evening, doing my makeup in the morning or while I finally relax and watch a bit of telly when my baby is in bed. I even pumped on a day out in London for my friends birthday while we were in a bar having brunch!

Side note (because my lactation consultant will be mad if I don’t mention this!):
whilst it’s great you CAN multitask whilst pumping, you may find that you get more milk if you create a more relaxing environment. Think of that wonderful oxytocin – taking some time in a comfy, cosy, stress free setting is prime for releasing those feel good hormones and helping your milk flow.
Read more of my breastfeeding tips in this post here!

While hands-free breast pumps have the same useful feature of freedom, they’re not all made equally. So I’m going to give you the pros and cons I’ve found for each pump from budget friendly to high end so you can work out which one is right for you!

I will also say before we start that I’ve produced the same amount of milk from each pump on different days. So many things affect your milk supply and it can vary day by day, week by week. I wouldn’t say there’s one pump that produces more milk for me than another, they all do the job!

Prefer to Watch?
Take a look at my Best Breast Pump Review Video over on Youtube:

Momcozy s12 Review:

The most budget friendly pump in our best breast pump review is the Momcozy S12 at just £69.99 for one pump, £139.99 for two. But how do they perform?

Pros:

• The main pro for these is the price point, they’re the cheapest of the three.
• They’re handsfree, duh!
• You can see just by looking down if it’s working. This is something you don’t think about until you’ve been using pumps, but it’s really handy to be able to see at a glance if your milk is coming through. Sometimes when you put them on your positioning can be a little off and it can result in zero milk from your session unless you check things are coming through. These pumps are clear all round so you can quickly see if you’ve got them on right and if your milk is flowing.
• Pumping Timer on the display so you can see at a glance how long you’ve been pumping for.
• They have a three different settings: stimulation, pumping and stimulation and pumping together. 
• They pour nicely
• They have a big capacity (180ml+) which was a godsend for me when I had my abundant milk!

Cons:

• They are bulky. There’s no getting away from the fact that you’re pumping when you’ve got these in! They’re not discreet at all.
• They’re also top heavy and may slip out of your bra if you’re moving too much
• The battery life isn’t amazing, I feel like I have to charge these a lot.
• It’s hard to read the ml measurements on the pump itself to see how much you have especially when pumping in the evening 
• And the biggest con for me is that they’re very very strong. Even on the lower settings I find them uncomfortable to use and I feel a little tender for quite a while afterwards. Stronger isn’t always better as it doesn’t necessarily yield more milk but it can just make the experience less comfortable and these for me aren’t particularly pleasant to use.

Momcozy s12 Summary: 
Most cost effective, least discreet, quite uncomfortable to use.

MyWren Hands-Free Pump Review:

Our mid-range pump is the MyWren at just £97.99 for one pump and £184.99 for two. BUT I have a 10% discount voucher for you which brings them down to £88.19 (single pump) and £166.49! Amazing!
(just use ‘XAMELIAX’ for 10% off your order if you decide to buy these)

Pros:

• The price is a pro for the Wrens as for how great they look and feel and how well they work, I think they’re brilliant value.
• They’re discreet-ish. They’re not as thin as the Elvie’s but they’re pretty close and the shape means they’re not overly obvious when you’re wearing them.
• Super easy to use. There’s just two settings and a few buttons so you know what you’re doing straight out the box.
• Hands free, duh. 
• Good capacity (150ml) so they hold a decent amount of milk 
• They have excellent suction but they’re still very comfortable to pump with 
• They come with multiple flange sizes and adapters as standard so you get the perfect fit and optimal pumping

Cons: 

• You can’t see top down at a glance if they’re working or not
• There’s only two settings – stimulation and pumps. (This has never been a problem for me as I’ve always gotten the milk I needed from a bog-standard pump setting, but it’s worth noting if you want more variety for whatever reason!)
• They’re a bit loud. You probably wouldn’t be able to hear them over a noisy film/on the tube etc but I wouldn’t fancy using them in a library! Again, only a con if you plan to pump in very quiet public places a lot.
• They can leak a little if you bend too far forward and they’re verging on full.
• Difficult to pour (although if you use the flange as a funnel into your bottle/bag it solves that problem!)

MyWren Hands-Free Pump Summary:
Pretty discreet, easy to use, excellent output and purse friendly. 

Elvie Breast Pump Review: 

The most expensive in our best breast pump comparison is the Elvie coming in at a whopping £269 for ONE PUMP! And £499 for the double. Oooft.

Pros:

• They connect to your phone so you can control them from an app. This gives you some good stats about how much you’ve pumped if data is your thing.
• Different pumping rhythms – they have multiple different modes that are programmable and you can save your favourite settings.
• The app tells you how much you’ve pumped, live, during your pumping session so to can see if your milk is flowing and how much you’re getting.*(see cons)
• They are SO QUIET (they really are). The perfect pair for using in public if needed. (Want to hear how quiet each pump is? Check out my youtube video and use the timestamps in the description to skip to each pumps review)
• Very Discreet when they’re in – you can barely tell you’re wearing them *(see cons)
• Very Handfree – they just slot right into your bra and are very comfy.
• The nipple alignment line on the flange is helpful for when you’re placing them to help you get it right
• Easy to pour from
• Battery indicator that tells you when they’re running low
• Stops when full *(see cons)

Cons: 

• PRICE. Enough said. 
• Smaller capacity (140ml max)
• Tech issues with app – Bluetooth doesn’t always connect and how much milk you’re pumping isn’t accurate…AT ALL! 
• They stop when they’re ‘full’ but are often nowhere near full and it won’t let you override it.
• They leak if you lean forward 
• Only one flange size
• Flange is hard plastic and not flexible against the breast
• Whilst they’re a discreet size and shape, they have a power light on top. And although you can turn the brightness down, it still glows through certain clothing so it can look a little strange and give the game away!
• I don’t feel like they’re as strong as others

Elvie Breast Pump Summary:
They’re very expensive, they’re whisper quiet and super discreet, the tech is good in theory but can be unreliable and did I mention they’re really blooming EXPENSIVE.

WHICH IS THE BEST BREAST PUMP TO BUY?

Ok, so which hands free breast pump do I recommend the most…

If your main consideration is price then the Momcozy s12 does a great job.
If money isn’t an object at all then give the Elvie a go!

But the best all rounder and the pump I recommend to most people is the

Wren Hands-Free Breast Pump – from £97.99
(And don’t forget you can get and extra10% off with code ‘XAMELIAX’)

It’s the best balance of comfort, discretion, power, simplicity, capacity and price (especially if you nab that discount).

Do You Need One Pump or Two?

Now you know which is the best breast pump for you, it’s time to decide if you get a single or a double pump. If your budget allows, having two pumps makes things a LOT easier as you can do both boobs at the same time and get more milk in a shorter period. But you can 100% still pump with one and swap sides halfway through or do two pumping sessions on alternate sides.

Other items I recommend for your pumping journey (especially if you’re only using one pump):

Something like the Elvie Curve – a slight suction device that sits in your bra (like a hakka but more user friendly) to collect any let down from the other side while pumping or feeding from the first.

These milk catchers are also a godsend for catching let down especially at the beginning when there’s a LOT! They have no suction so won’t have an effect on your supply.

Once you have your milk you need to store it. These are my favourite milk bags as they’re super strong. These are also good and are great value (just handle carefully as i’ve had one or two split when defrosting if you’re heavy handed).

To warm up milk for a bottle we use this bottle warmer. We use it in the house and also out and about because it’s super portable. Simply pour in your milk, press your desired temperature and let it heat up over about 3-5 minutes before pouring into your bottle.

These are the bottles we use. As our son is breastfed we kept him on the newborn size teat so he didn’t develop a bottle preference – more on that in this post here.

And finally something I find helps with my pumping is a lactation massager. It warms and gently vibrates to help stimulate your let down. Or these warming pads, again, to help make the whole pumping process a little easier.

So there you have it – my hands-free breast pump recommendations and products to help the whole process of pumping go a little bit smoother.

That’s a LOT of information so I hope it’s been helpful in some way.

Feel free to drop me a DM over on Instagram, or leave a comment below or on my breast pump review Youtube video if you have any other questions!

The best breast pump comparison review was published on xameliax November 2023