The Medela Symphony Hospital-Grade Breast Pump Review
Overall Rating:
Available on Amazon for $1456.00 – 9% OFF
Medela Symphony Breast Pump
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Product Description:
The Medela Symphony Breast Pump is Medela’s newest hospital-grade, double electric breast pump. If you’re looking for the Best of the Best, look no further. The Medela Symphony is designed to produce a faster let-down, as well as more efficient expression, completely emptying your breasts. Lactation specialists agree, if you’re looking to establish your milk supply, the Medela Symphony is the key. Noted for being one of the most gentle and efficient hospital-grade breast pumps available, the Symphony is also extremely quiet, and offers all BPA/DEHP free parts.
Medela Symphony 2.0 Program Card
The Medela Symphony is the result of years of lactation research, offering Medela’s signature 2 phase expression technology, stimulation and expression mode, as well as one-touch let down, the Symphony has been proven to reduce pumping time giving you a faster let-down. The Medela Symphony also offers pre-programmed cards that allow you to save setting such as vacuum strength settings in both the stimulation and expression mode, as well as maximum comfort vacuum, which is basically your specific comfort level, making your pump time more efficient.
The Medela Symphony comes with everything you need right out of the box, including 2 PersonalFit Breastshields standard size 24mm, with 2 connectors, 2 valves & 2 membranes, collection containers (bottles) and lids, protective membranes and caps, as well as an instructional manual, container stand, and a Symphony 2.0 Program Card. The Medela Symphony is designed to be multi-user friendly. In fact, additional Double Pumping Kits are available separately for around $40.00.
Features Include:
Medela Symphony Double Pumping Kit
- Hospital-grade double electric breast pump, also offers single pumping
- Whisper quiet – programmed to automatically shut off after 30 minutes (it’s so quiet, it kept getting left on, so they added this feature)
- 2 Phase expression technology – stimulation and expression
- One-touch let down
- Vacuum regulator controls both speed and suction
- Standard Symphony 2.0 Program Card – Saves personal settings, allows you to also save your personal maximum comfort vacuum level.
- Proven to produce faster let-down and more efficient pumping time
- 2 PersonalFit Breast shields (24mm)
- Comes with full double pumping kit, including: Breast shield connectors, valves & membranes, collection containers and lids, tubing, protective membranes and membrane caps.
- DPA/DEHP free
- The Medela Symphony Plus comes with a rechargeable battery
Get the Medela Symphony Breast Pump – $1456.00
Get the Medela Symphony Plus Breast Pump – $1799.99
Get a Double Breast Pumping Kit
After researching several reviews on the Medela Symphony, I’ve come to a few conclusions. First of all, the Symphony is like the “Cream of the Crop”, it’s the top of the line. Lactation specialists LOVE this breast pump, and so do all the Mom’s that use it. In fact, I had a hard time finding any negative feedback, aside from the price of course.
Secondly, if for some reason your milk supply is low, whether it’s because your baby was born early and your body isn’t up to speed, or because your baby is having trouble latching on and nursing, in order to build and establish your milk supply, which must be done in the first 4 weeks, you must use a hospital-grade, double electric breast pump, and the Medela Symphony is perfect! Other double electric breast pumps, like the Medela Pump In Style, are meant to be used when your milk supply has already been established. The Medela Symphony is the closest a breast pump will ever get to simulating the real thing, with its 2 phase expression technology, it is designed to mimic your baby’s natural sucking rhythm perfectly, therefore producing a faster let-down, and efficiently emptying out your breasts. This must be done in order to signal your body to produce more milk.
Reasons to Buy:
Thirdly, the Medela Symphony is definitely worth it’s price tag if….
- you plan on breastfeeding & pumping exclusively for more than 11 months
- if your baby is unable to nurse and you’d still like him/her to receive the best possible nutrients
- if you plan on breastfeeding for over 11 months and you’re a full time working Mom
- if you plan on having more than one child and need to have the option of bottle feeding your breast milk
- or if you just want the BEST of the BEST
The Medela Symphony is expensive, and if you’d just like to use it to establish your milk supply at home, I would suggest renting it from your local Hospital, or Medical Supply Store. They’re usually around $80/month, so if you only plan on using it for a month or two, renting is the better option. If you plan on using it for several months, after about 11 or 12 months you’re already in to it for almost $1000.00. At that rate, you might as well buy it, then later (since it’s designed to be a multi-user pump) you can resell it and make some money back. Check and see if the Medela Symphony is available at your local Hospital or Medical Supply Store first, and see how much it costs to rent monthly, then go from there.
The Medela Symphony is hands down, the best double electric breast pump available. I normally include a Good and Bad list with my reviews, but there just isn’t any bad, aside from the price. Check out the below customer feedback, and see for yourself.
Customer Feedback:
The Only Pump I Will Ever Use!!, June 3, 2010
By K. Blatt “Dragonfly” (San Diego, CA USA)
This is hands down the best pump I have used. Both my sons were tongue-tied at birth, so there were latch issues which resulted in my having to express breast milk until they could learn to latch correctly. I wasn’t able to resolve the issue with my first son, so we used the Symphony pump for 11 months. Somewhere in that time, I purchased the Medela Pump In Style in order to avoid the continuing cost of pump rental. After using the Symphony, I hated the other pump. I also had the Medela Swing (which I had purchased prior to my first son’s birth). Again, nothing compares to the Symphony. The Swing is similar, but only a single pump and not as strong. The Symphony is the closest thing to a nursing child that you can find in a pump.
The Symphony has helped me through many blocked ducts and pumps quickly and efficiently. It is a time saver and is so much quieter than other pumps. It is expensive, but when I look back on what I have paid to rent one (not to mention the pumps I purchased that I don’t use), I could have purchased the pump instead! I rented the Symphony on day 2 after my second son’s birth (as soon as I learned that he was tongue-tied). I immediately looked for one to purchase knowing that I would most likely have it awhile. We are planning on having more children, so it made sense to purchase one. I Just wish I hadn’t wasted my money on the other pumps. This certainly falls under “you get what you pay for”.
This review is from: Medela Symphony Breast Pump – See Original
The Best Pump Ever, February 7, 2011
By PrettyMama,
If you are thinking about buying a $400 pump… don’t waste your money. At my hospital I was able to rent this for 200 for 5 months at a time. I took this back after the first 5 months because I figured I would be switching to formula. However I decided not to so I bought a phillips electric pump and it was terrible… I got maybe an ounce after 10 minutes of pumping and it hurt! So I tried to use my manual lasinoh pump and it works okay, but it gets tiring after awhile and it also started to hurt!
However… this pump is just so amazing – it takes probably 8 minutes maybe less to fully pump both sides. I do have to hold them on, but maybe that’s just because I find it easier. It doesn’t hurt at all in my opinion and I have used it on fairly high setting.
If you are planing on having more than one or two children then it would definitely be worth it to buy this pump!
It is annoying to lug around but if you get the case and strap to carry it then it’s really not that bad to transport… IMO.
This review is from: Medela Symphony Breast Pump – See Original