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I received this product at no cost to facilitate my review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Like her big brother, Little Miss Cub is a full-time breastfed baby. She’ll get a bottle of pumped milk from time to time, but not enough to warrant an electric pump. If I were just pumping to relieve pressure and leave an emergency bottle for Papa Wolf, I would use a manual pump. But I’m not just feeding Little Miss Cub: I’m a very proud breast milk donor!

{If you’re wondering what type of pump best suits your own needs, click here.}

The Medela Freestyle Electric Breastpump is designed for Moms who pump several times I day. In my case, I’m pumping usually just once, but this experience has allowed me to really get to know the product, and afforded me new-found respect for working Moms who pump every day to feed their baby at home or at day care. While the Freestyle makes the process of pumping as easy as possible, there’s nothing quite so convenient as just bringing baby to the breast!

When I first opened up my Freestyle box, I was intimidated by the tubing, the plug, the accessories and what seemed like a complicated assembly.

This may have been partially due to my postpartum exhaustion, but also my general dislike of instruction manuals. The good news is it’s really, really easy to set up.

Let’s start with the included accessories. At $450 Canadian, it definitely includes everything you need to pump full-time, aside from the one-time use items.

You’ve got some disposable nursing pads (save yourself lots of money… buy washable ones!), a sterilization bag, milk storage bags and the Calma nipple attachment for the included bottles:

Yup, it comes with a special cooler bag for transporting your milk! There are so many women out there who bring their pumps to and from work every day, and I sincerely salute you. The Freestyle comes with its own large tote bag just for this purpose.

So while I hope to never have to test out the transport bag and the milk cooler (privileged that I truly am to be home with my nursling), I’ve been pumping up the jam for the milk bank for over two months now. My weapon of choice: my Medela!

This dohicky is the motor, and Cub is a big fan of pressing the buttons:

The plus and minus are to increase or decrease suction. The little drops and arrow on the bottom left are to signal to the machine if/when you have a let down, and the little lady on the bottom right is to save your pumping routine (how long the stimulation phase lasts, what level of suction for how long) for the next time.

The motor has a battery and a belt clip, so you’re totally mobile while pumping. Pumping once a day for about 25 minutes, I didn’t have to recharge the battery for four weeks.

The tubing attaches to the motor like so:

If you are only pumping on one side, you simply insert one of the tube ends into the centre piece.

The breastshield is assembled with these four pieces, then attached to the bottle. (You can also hang the Medela pumping bags directly off of them, if you’re careful not to spill!)

The tubing is inserted into the breastshield and away we go!

The Freestyle comes with a hands-free accessory that can attach to your bra. I haven’t used it because I have a Dairy Fairy pumping bra, and when I’m not wearing that I kind of just shove the breastshields into my sportsbra and the stay put as long as I’m not walking around (which I don’t tend to do while pumping… I tend to eat ice cream).

When you first turn on the pump, it’s in “stimulation” mode. That sounds super exciting and may be the only stimulation you’re getting in your life, so enjoy it. All Medela pumps feature this 2-Phase Expression technology:

Stimulation phase – when babies first go to breast, they suck faster to start milk flowing.
Expression phase – after milk flow or “let-down” starts, babies breastfeed with a slower, deeper suck to remove milk.

[Source: Medela Website.]

If, during the stimulation mode, you feel a let-down (is it not the strangest feeling ever?!), you press the let-down button and the pump goes straight into expression phase. I like to increase the suction to the highest. I’m probably an average producer of breastmilk. Depending on when I pump, I usually get between 4-5 oz. in about twenty minutes. I just brought my first donation to the breastmilk bank: 160 oz.!