Medela Symphony or Classic? HELP!

[surromom]

Hi. I am surrogate and my surro son is due in April.

After his birth, I will be pumping full time and donating my milk to babies in need of it.

Here's the question - I was going to rent a Symphony but an LC recommended the Classic. Upon further investigation, I found that they both rent for the same price per month. So I looked into it further but I can't find many differences between the two.

The Classic costs about 1k more than the Symphony but why? The Classic weighs considerably more than the Symphony, which is fine with me. And the Symphony has a two phase expression feature.

Are there more differences that I am missing? Both are rated very well online by other EPers. But I want to of course get the best pump and being they both cost the same per month, I am genuinely confused as to which to get.

ANY thoughts, opinions, advice, etc. is very much welcomed. I want to make my decision about which I am getting before my surro son arrives. ;)


(For whatever it's worth, I have a Lactina I purchased - which I used with my own twins years ago. And I have a PIS Traveler for backup)

[Kimberly]

Hi!

I EPd for about 3 months after my son was born, but eventually got him to nurse. (He went on the self-wean at 6 years old.)

I rented the "hospital grade" Medela. I don't recall if it was called the "classic" but I know it wasn't called the "symphony" because that's something I would remember. My pump was pretty heavy and worked VERY well. Between the pump and Fenugreek herbs to help my supply, I was able to provide plenty of milk for my son for about 3 months.

So maybe that doesn't help, but I can at least tell you the hospital grade Medela was GREAT!

Best wishes for a happy healthy birth of your surrogate baby! I think it's wonderful of you to do it! :-)

Kimberly

[mlschwie]

I have used both and have found the Symphony to work much better for me. There are two big differences between these two pumps. With the Classic you will only be able to increase the speed of the pumping intervals. With the Symphony the first pump setting imitates a babies initial nursing pattern which can help with the initial letdown. This helped me tremendously. Then the second setting not only increases the frequency of the pumping intervals but the intervals are longer in length which was better for me. When the pump pulls on my breast, the longer interval actually allows for more milk to be expressed. I am not sure if I am explaining this very well. With the Classic I would have to put the setting so high to get the equivalent milk at a much lower setting on the Symphony...therefore, the Symphony is less uncomfortable for me to use.

I was told by my hospital lactation department that the Classic is being discontinued by Medela since the Symphony works so well for many mothers. I am sure with all things that everyone has their own personal preference, but I did have much better results with the Symphony.

[surromom]

Thank you BOTH for your replies.

After reading these and talking with some LC's this weekend, I've decided to go with the Symphony.

Now to decide something else.. an LC recommended I just need it for a month, and then I could pump and maintain the same supply with my PIS Traveler. I'm not so sure about that. The place I am renting from is $75/month, but if I rent for three months - then it's $60/month (so $180 total).

Hmm.

[Kimberly]

I'd do 3 months. The hospital grades are, imo, So much better than the PIS. And if you have a two story home, like I dp, you can keep one upstairs and one down, or keep the PIS in your car, and the other set up at home.

[EllysLunch]

Have you looked on Ebay? I have an Ameda Elite that I got for 40 bucks-yes 40$. Best thing I ever bought.