The day before I gave birth to my little Vivienne, I wrote a post in celebration of World Breastfeeding Week. In it, I mentioned how I sort of “started over” with my research of breast pumps for my second baby. Admittedly, I didn’t do a lot of research before buying my first breast pump, just before Nora was born. I just went with what I thought was “standard,” and really never wondered whether there was something better out there.

This time, though, I went into it knowing that breastfeeding and pumping WORKED for me last time. I made it to 13 months, and because of that, I have greater confidence that I can do that this time, too. Because of that, I felt that anything I gathered for myself in terms of breastfeeding supplies should be stuff that I actually like. Things that make my life easier. It’s the least I can do for myself, since I’m in this for the long haul.

Anyway, I won’t completely repeat myself from this post, but through some searching I ended up finding Hygeia, and then the Hygeia EnJoye pump.

There were things right off the bat that I liked about the EnJoye. First, it’s “greener” than other pumps since it’s designed to be able to be used by multiple women. Other pumps are supposed to be “single user” systems (although I know some people do sell and/or buy them used), but the EnJoye has a filter at the base of the pump and tubes that truly keeps everything out of the pump. So if you buy (or are given!) a used EnJoye, all you have to do is get a new Personal Accessory Set (costs about $45) and you’re good to go. Because you’re able to sell the EnJoye when you’re done with it, you can recoup some of the money you spent, and… one less pump in a landfill! And if you don’t want to mess around with selling it and don’t have anyone to give it to, you can send it back to Hygeia and they’ll recycle it for you for free.

The Hygeia EnJoye is also considered hospital grade, which means (potentially) more milk in less time. For someone who admittedly has a love/hate (but mostly hate) relationship with pumping, this is key. Particularly when I go back to work and have to pump 3-4 times per day. UGH.

I received my Hygeia EnJoye in the mail just a few days after Vivienne was born. I didn’t mess around with it too much right away, since I wanted to make sure that the baby and I had established a good nursing relationship. Once I was confident that had happened and my initial engorgement (OUCH!) passed, I decided to give it a whirl after Vivienne’s morning feeding. I pumped for the first time when she was one week old, and I’ve pumped once daily since then. The morning pumping has become my routine. My main goal at this point is to build a nice freezer stash for when I go back to work, and for when Vivienne gets bigger and her demand outpaces my supply. Thankfully, I was able to keep up with Nora for several months, but as she got closer to a year, I had to start dipping into my freezer stash. I anticipate the same thing will happen this time around, so I’m off to an early start!

Anyway, I was excited to try the Hygeia EnJoye. Since I had pumped so many times before, getting set up and getting started were easy peasy.

The Hygeia works a bit differently than my last pump, since it has dials for both speed and strength. This is an advantage, I think, because it makes the pump highly adjustable so you can figure out the settings that help to maximize your output. One thing is that you have to manually change the speed/strength once you start to let down—different from Medela, which does this automatically after two minutes of initial stimulation. I don’t find this to be bothersome at all, given that the pump is always within arm’s reach.

One thing that has been absolutely awesome is the fact that the Hygeia is cordless. It has an internal battery that is charged, of course, by plugging the pump into the wall, but once it’s charged, I’m FREE!! I have never had the battery die on me, but I usually charge it once a week or so for good measure. I’m guessing I’ll have to charge it a bit more often than that once I’m pumping multiple times a day, but still. I’m looking forward to one less “part” to carry back and forth with me to work every day. And, as you can imagine, it’s been especially convenient for “mobile pumping.” I’ve pumped in the car a handful of times now—not while driving, but as a passenger—and it’s been great. I used to be able to do that with the Medela, too, but I had to make sure I had the battery pack, that it had fresh AA batteries in it, etc. With the Hygeia’s internal battery, it’s much easier.

It may sound weird, but I also just like Hygeia’s pump parts better. The flanges and the valves? Much easier to clean. The Hygeia’s valves are “duckbill” valves, made out of a rubbery material. Medela’s valves have those flimsy little white pieces that I was always afraid I was going to tear to shreds when washing. I’ve found that it’s much easier to get a bottle brush up into Hygeia’s flanges/connectors, too—despite the flanges not separating from the connectors like they do with Medela! Again, while some may see that as a disadvantage, I see that as one less part to have to keep track of. It’s nice that everything is so easy to clean, given that we’ll be washing them approximately 582,000 times (OK, I might be exaggerating a little) in the next year. And the tubes? They’re longer and more flexible than Medela’s, which is definitely a very, very small detail but one that surprisingly makes it much easier to get set up.

The only downside to Hygeia’s parts is that they’re not available in stores, obviously. You have to order them from Hygeia or other online retailers, and shipping can be expensive for some reason. To avoid emergencies, I plan to order a spare set of parts to keep around. But you know what? Another great thing about the EnJoye is that almost all of the parts are interchangeable with Medela parts. Want to use Medela bottles, tubing, flanges, connectors? YOU CAN. So in a pinch, you can use parts you may already have on hand, or at the very least can be purchased at the nearest Buy Buy Baby, Babies ‘R’ Us, Target, etc.

The Hygeia pump is also more adjustable in terms of the bottles you can pump into. The connectors are for wide-mouth bottles, but included are also adapters for the narrow bottles as well. We use Tommee Tippee bottles, and unfortunately, they’re too wide, even for the wide connectors, but that doesn’t bother me, to be honest. When I get into my work/daycare routine, I’m constantly rotating milk—preparing bottles with frozen milk, then freezing the fresh stuff I’ve pumped that day—so it’s not really an advantage for me to pump directly into the bottles she drinks from, you know? Still, you have more bottle options with Hygeia than with other pumps, so that goes in the “plus” column as well.

The EnJoye comes with two wide-mouth bottles to use. I rotate these in with my other pumping bottles. A word of warning, and perhaps one of the only negative things I have to say about the Hygeia EnJoye system/package… the measurement marks on the bottles are incorrect. At least they are on my bottles (I can’t say or assume that they’re all like this). It took me a few weeks to figure this out, too, which is unfortunate because it means that I have bags in my freezer stash that are incorrectly marked. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance nonetheless. In the photo below, you can see the ounces markers as marked by Hygeia, and then Sharpie marks where I’ve indicated the correct level.

The discrepancy starts off relatively small toward the bottom of the bottle, but as I worked my way up, I found that it was off by almost an entire ounce toward the top. I still use these bottles now that I have them correctly marked, so no big deal—but I wish I would have known before. There were several days that I used these bottles not knowing the marks were wrong, and thought I pumped more than I did! And when you are a pumping mom and every drop counts, it was disappointing when I discovered those few pumping sessions yielded less than I thought. Bummer. Anyway, a minor complaint all in all—particularly since it doesn’t affect the performance of the pump at all—but I thought it was worth noting.

A few other things I want to mention briefly:

• There are “record” and “play” buttons that allow you to record sound (see above photo). The idea behind this is that you can actually record your baby crying, cooing, laughing, etc. and play it back to help you pump more milk. There are studies that show that if you’re looking at a photo of your child, watching video, listening to his/her cry, etc. that you will have an easier time, so Hygeia is playing off of that here. I don’t foresee using this feature at all, but hey, it’s there if you want it.
• I’ve read others complain about the pump being loud. I don’t know that it’s any louder than the Medela Pump-in-Style Advanced that I used with Nora. *shrug* It doesn’t really bother me. I watch TV, or go on the computer and haven’t had any trouble concentrating. Also, I’ve pumped right next to a sleeping Vivienne and she’s never been disturbed by it, so there’s that. If it IS a little louder, I’d guess that it’s because the pump is not embedded inside of a bag, so there’s nothing buffering the sound.

On a related note, I want to talk about the tote. With the Medela pumps (with the exception of the Freestyle), the pumps are built into the tote bags, so you have no flexibility in terms of how to carry the darn thing. I toted that ugly black bag around every day for a year, and man, I hated it. I hated how the pump was situated right in the middle of the dang bag and how it was pretty useless for storing much at all—I mean, even the little cooler pack had to be carried separately! Because the Hygeia EnJoye pump is “free standing,” you have options. You can order your EnJoye with either a black or brown bag—with an included matching cooler pack—or you can opt not to get a tote at all.

My Hygeia EnJoye didn’t come with a tote at all. I’m on the hunt for a bag that will be more versatile for me when I return to work. Something that I can carry more things in—like the cooler bag, my lunch, or perhaps even my laptop. One of the things that sucked the most about being a working, pumping mom was hauling around so.many.bags every day. I felt like I was weighed down with so much crap walking in and out of work, that when I finally stopped pumping, it felt STRANGE to walk in and out of work for a while. I was practically shouting FREEDOM! as I walked in and out of the office. Anyway, hopefully more to come on this whole issue soon, but I love that Hygeia doesn’t tie me to a particular bag. You can carry your EnJoye in whatever bag your little heart desires.

All of this to say that I’m really loving the Hygeia EnJoye. As much as someone can love a breast pump, anyway… because there’s no doubt that pumping sucks. I’ve never come across a mom who is all, “Pumping is fun! Pumping is awesome!” so I think it’s safe to say that we all hate it, but it’s a necessary evil and a sacrifice we make for our babies.

I know that many women choose Medela by default. I mean, basically the entire pumping aisle at Babies ‘R’ Us looks like Medela threw up all over it. In the big box retail stores, Medela dominates. But if you’re into researching better options and looking for the lesser known gems, I think you might find it in Hygeia. If you’re a pumping mom, an expectant mom, or a future expectant mom… I encourage you to check them out.

Questions about my experience with my Hygeia EnJoye? Let me know. :)

Disclaimer: Hygeia provided me with a Hygeia EnJoye LBI pump for free in exchange for my review. However, opinions expressed within this post are my own. (I hope you trust that I wouldn’t positively review a product that I wouldn’t back anyway, whether I paid for it or not!)