Shopping for breast pumps isn’t as a straightforward as other baby products but we’re here to help. The first thing you should know about breast pumps is that not everyone will use one so you may want to hold off purchasing one until your little one arrives.

The second thing that’s helpful to know about breast pumps is that they generally come in two styles: manual and electric. Manual breast pumps require you to physically do the pumping while you express while electric breast pumps do the pumping for you. Deciding which is best for you is a matter of personal preference but in my experience if you plan to express milk every day an electric breast pump is seriously efficient and will save you lots of time compared to the manual variety.

We’ve broken down the difference between both manual and electric breast pumps in our breast pump shopping guide here, which hopefully makes deciding between the two easier.

After the results came in for our 2022 Best Breast Pumps in Australia, I tested quite a few for The Baby Edit, including the Medela Swing Flex 2-Phase Single Electric Breast Pump (since I reviewed this product, they’ve released a newer model called the Medela Swing Maxi).

Key takeaways after testing this product

I tested a few electric breast pumps and tried really hard to find the differences between various models. I found the Medela Swing Flex 2-Phase Single Electric Breast Pump was quite similar to the Philips Avent Electric Breast Pump in my experience but I slightly preferred the overall design of the Medela more.

I really liked the bottle shape and the bottle stand that this product came with, which meant less tears over spilt milk! Mimi also quite liked feeding from this bottle and didn’t cause a stir when my husband or mum were feeding her with this bottle too.

The Medela Swing Flex 2-Phase Single Electric Breast Pump is also relatively compact. This was pretty handy for me as my mum leaves regionally and when Mimi was really young we would visit her often and being able to throw the Medela quickly in the nappy bag was really handy.

I really liked that the base unit is really intuitive to use, there’s a let down mode and you can pump up and down with various controls to operate the speed. The flange has a built in rubber compared to the Philips Avent Electric Breast Pump that you have to manually put the silicone cap on and take off to wash.

But when it came to comfort, I didn’t experience much difference between the two models. I thought they were both relatively gentle but I did a lot of breastfeeding, so I’m not sure if the comfort level would differ if you were pumping more often throughout the day.

Another positive, the Medela Swing Flex 2-Phase Single Electric Breast Pump was relatively easy to clean. This is a big plus for a breast pump, as you have to clean and sterilise them between each use, so the easier they are the clean means you’ll save a lot of time in the long run!

I’d definitely recommend this product if you’re looking for a compact and portable breast pump. It is designed for every day use, but if you are predominantly expressing milk a double electric breast pump might be more time efficient.

The Medela Swing Flex 2-Phase Single Electric Breast Pump was tested by Emily. Photography by Bri Hammond, produced by The Baby Edit. To find out which breast pumps ranked highest according to our surveyed parents, click here.

This is general information only. If you need personal, health, medical or technical advice when it comes to your growing family, please seek out a professional.