Freemie Liberty Mobile Hands Free Breast Pump, Grey

This is a review of the first 6 months of using my Freemie Independence (insurance-provided version of Liberty). The differences between the Independence and Liberty are this: The Liberty has a pretty LCD screen and an adjustable auto-shutoff timer, the Independence does not have those two things. The rest of the specs are the same.I had a pre-pregnancy cup size of 30A and oversupply/fast letdown. YMMV depending on your personal challenges with size and supply.PROs:- Mobile- Quiet- Works under clothing- Easy to disguise with scarf or loose jacketCONs:- Hard to watch progress while pumping- Trial and error sometimes needed to troubleshoot failed suction- Easy to knock over full cups and spill milk- Y-valve was not air tight when I tried to pump with just one cup. Didn’t really affect my day-to-day use.- Cleaning the pump parts seems more complicated than other models & no steam sterilizing allowed.When my baby was 15 days old, I started using my Freemie Independence to pump an extra 1-2 meals after his morning feeding. The markings on the side of the cups are very difficult to see while you are pumping, and in my experience not exactly accurate. If you want to be able to pump until you get exactly a certain ounce measurement of milk, this is not the pump for you. I pumped for 20 minutes after the morning feeding, and got varying amounts of milk each time.ASSEMBLY: Making sure you have the cups fit together correctly is very important (read the instructions!). My main issue was making sure the ‘membrane’ was seated and held down well. It would look okay until I bumped up the suction after letdown. Then I would notice the membrane base attempting to pull away from the seat, and no milk would pump into that cup until I stopped and took it all apart to reseat the membrane.CLOTHING: I used stretchy, tight-fitting nursing/maternity tank tops with the pump. These held the cups to me fairly well, however, as my breasts emptied, I felt the need to use my hands to press the cups tight to my chest, since the top was not then holding them as tightly.MOVEMENT: At home, I walked around and did small chores while pumping, which was great! You cannot bend over very far without spilling or getting milk in the membrane area, so getting laundry out of my top-load washer was a no-go. I had to perform a bit of an upright squat to unload the dishwasher or pick something up off the floor. Picking up and holding a small baby is doable, but not comfortable or conducive keeping the cups in good placement. Also, I found that if I was hurrying around or trying to get too much done while pumping, I ended up pumping much less than if I stayed relaxed and moved around the house at a slow pace.POURING: After you have pumped, you set the filled cups ‘nose down’ on a flat and stable surface. IT IS VERY EASY TO ACCIDENTALLY BUMP ONE AND SEND IT CAREENING AROUND THE COUNTER, SLOSHING MILK EVERYWHERE. You pour the milk into a bottle or bag from a small opening provided at the top of the cup. I poured into a bottle to get a decent reading on how many ounces I had pumped, then divvied it up into freezing bags from there. Sometimes a little milk that had not made it through the valve and into the cup would run back out of the flange when I was trying to pour the milk out. This was annoying and messy, so just be prepared for it.RETURNING TO WORK: When I went back to work after 3 months, I continued wearing the stretchy nursing tank tops under my work clothes. At first, I used my company’s pumping room & stored my filled milk-storage bags in a lunch box kept in the company refrigerator. I took apart and cleaned & dried the Freemie cups after each of my 3 pumpings. All told, this took 30 minutes per session. After I became more comfortable using the pump at work, I picked out work tops that I could easily slip the cups into and bought a Cold Gold Breastmilk Cooler Bag (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072W5V4BM/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) to keep at my desk. Now, I assemble the cups at my desk (low-walled cubicle), slip them under my work top and into my nursing tank top, then clip the pump to my waistband and snake the tubes (which I shortened some) up under my nursing top and into the cups. Then I either close my jacket over the ‘tube cleavage’, or put a shawl/scarf over it (I keep two scarfs at my desk for this purpose). I can then pump for 15 minutes while continuing work. Afterwards, I pull the cups out and pour straight into Freezer Storage Cups at my desk (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PF841GQ/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). The storage cups of milk then go straight into the Cold Gold cooler bag sitting on my desk (instead of having to walk it to the fridge). I still take apart and wash the Freemie cups in the bathroom after each pump, but the time away from my desk has reduced to about 10 minutes per pumping session. (I have seen some people say they put the assembled cups in the fridge between pumping sessions instead of washing/drying each time, but the Freemie site says not to do this and I’m too much of a wuss to try it.) I take the cooler bag home with me at the end of the day and the storage cups go straight into the freezer.The pump needs charged every 2-3 days, and I keep the charger plugged in at my desk. Usually takes around 3 hours (roughly the time between pumping sessions) to charge it back to full.Obviously, you will need a certain comfort level with getting the cups in and out of your shirt and openly pouring and measuring breastmilk at your desk. The pump itself is pretty quiet unless you really crank the suction. Only someone sitting very quietly in the cube next to me would be able to hear it on my normal suction level.EFFICIENCY: Since I had oversupply to start with, in the beginning I rarely had trouble pumping what my baby was drinking at daycare, usually ending up with an extra feeding at the end of each workday. Now that my baby is 6 months old and drinks ~6 oz per meal, I find I have to pump longer while massaging and even hand express a little extra after the pump to fill up the 6 oz storage cup. This may be because my oversupply has gone down, or the pump is losing efficiency as it gets older (which happens with all pumps). Remember, babies get increasingly better at draining you of milk; pumps do not. There have always been milk ducts (typically the ones just beneath my nipple, in the center of my breast) that the pump has difficulty emptying, and I typically need to massage (a little) the ducts on the outer and under sides of my breasts for the pump to empty those out well. (Learn to and practice hand expressing. It’s worth it for when the pump can’t quite get it done.)CONCLUSIONS: I love this pump. Not being tethered to a wall outlet at home improved my post-partum sanity, and being able to covertly pump at my desk at work is awesome. The major downside for me is the complicated cleaning, but the mobility and discrete nature easily outweigh that. I’d buy it again in a heartbeat.