Single Electric Breast Pump
Medela Swing Vs. AVENT Breast Pump
If you’re looking for the best single electric breast pump, and you happen to be stuck between the Medela Swing and the Philips AVENT Single Electric Breast Pump, I might be able to help.
First of all, let’s take a look at the similarities. Both the Medela Swing and the Philips AVENT Single Electric Breast Pump, formerly known as the ISIS iQ Uno, are BPA Free, offer adjustable cycle speeds and adjustable suction levels. These single electric breast pumps come with at least one bottle, a bottle stand, a breast shield or funnel, and an AC adapter that plugs into any standard outlet.
Differences:
As for differences, you can see from the pictures that these two single electric breast pumps offer entirely different designs. The Medela Swing Single Electric Breast Pump (available here on Amazon) provides a separate pump unit attached with a single tube that connects to the breast shield and bottle, whereas the AVENT Breast Pump has its pump unit directly attached to the breast shield and bottle.
There are benefits and drawbacks to each design. For instance, because the Medela Swing’s pump unit is separate, the breast shield and collection container weighs less; therefore, it would be much easier to use hands-free with a special bustier. The drawback would be carting the pump unit around with a tube running from the unit to the collection container.
Now the AVENT Breast Pump (available here on Amazon) offers an all-in-one design with all the controls at your fingertips. The only problem with this would be that it weighs more, and you would not be able to use it with a hands-free bustier.
One other design difference would be the breast shields. The Medela Swing offers a SoftFit breast shield, and the AVENT Breast Pump provides a 5-Petal Cushion Massage breast shield. Both of these breast shields are designed to do the same thing, providing a secure, comfortable fit.
The only difference is that the Medela Swing’s breast shield is a standard size of 24 mm, and the AVENT’s breast shield is one size fits all. Now Medela offers several different PersonalFit sizes of breast shields, while AVENT only provides one.
The Medela Swing offers 2 phase expression technology as far as functional differences go. This means that when you first begin pumping, the Medela Swing uses a stimulation mode, which is a quick sucking rhythm, to stimulate the breast and milk flow. Once this phase is completed, it will automatically switch to the expression mode, a deeper, longer sucking motion designed to express milk more efficiently. Both of these expression phases mimic your baby’s natural sucking rhythms. The Medela Swing also offers a one-touch letdown button, which means that if you feel a letdown before the 2-minute stimulation phase is complete, you can manually switch to the expression mode.
The AVENT Single Electric Breast Pump works a little bit differently. When you first begin pumping, you manually pump until you’ve reached the rhythm that best suits you, then you press a button on the handle, and the AVENT Breast Pump continues to pump at the same rhythm. Therefore you can create your stimulation phase manually, and then once letdown has occurred, you can manually slow down the pumping action and switch to automatic.
The AVENT Breast Pump also offers an electronic memory that will remember your custom settings, and should the need arise, you can remove the pump unit altogether and use it as a manual breast pump.
Other differences between these two single electric breast pumps include battery operation and additional features. The Medela Swing Single Electric Breast Pump can be operated with 4 AA batteries, not included. The AVENT Breast Pump offers a built-in rechargeable battery and cannot be run on batteries.
As for additional features, the Medela Swing comes with two 5 oz bottles, with two lids, a bottle stand, a travel cap, one valve, three membranes, tubing, a neck/shoulder strap, a belt clip on the back of the pump, and a drawstring bag to carry it all.
The AVENT Single Electric Breast Pump does not come with as many extras, but it offers a bottle stand, one 4 oz bottle, a newborn flow nipple, manual pump parts for manual use, one spare part, and the battery pack.
Check out the total in-depth reviews listed below for more information on either one of these single electric breast pumps.
Medela Swing Single Electric Breast Pump Review & Video Demo
Philips AVENT Single Electric Breast Pump Review & Video Demo