Top 3 Breast Pumps for Stay At Home Moms (SAHM)

There are SO many breast pumps to choose from it can seem very overwhelming for most expecting and breastfeeding mothers.

As an IBCLC, nurse, doula, and mom of 3, I love helping other moms choose the best breast pump for them. In fact, I have a whole Facebook group just dedicated to that. I’d love to see you over there!

So, if you came to me and said, “I’m going to be exclusively breastfeeding my baby, I’m not going back to work, and I’ll mostly be with my baby 99% of the time” these would be my breast pump recommendations for you.

Check with your Insurance Company

First, check with your insurance company and see if they cover a pump for you. This can really help you narrow down your options and is a great place to start. A company like Aeroflow can do all the paperwork for you, visit their website so see how they can help you get a free breast pump.

It can be really easy to feel like everybody needs a pump but that is not always the case. Just because you have a breast pump, doesn’t mean you need to use it! This is especially true if your a stay a home mom (SAHM).

#1 A Solid, Efficient Breast Pump

So…

If you’re looking for a solid pump, that is going to work for almost everybody, get the job done fast, efficient – my recommendation would be the Luna Motif*

This was a hard choice for me because I have been a long time lover of the Spectra pump (and I still love the Sprectra pump) but the Luna has won me over.

The thing I like about the Luna Motif is that it has similar suction styles to the Spectra. It has all the same features, you can adjust the cycles, you can adjust the levels, it has a display to make it easy to know where you are at, and so much more. I love it.

It has a little handle so you can carry it around and it’s small enough you could actually fit this in your purse, especially if you get the one with the rechargeable battery. That is awesome! This is a solid workhorse pump that is going to work for almost everybody. You will never need anything other than a pump like this, so that would be my number one recommendation.

_{*As of October 2022, the Luna Motif is NOT the same as it was in this review! An updated video with the details can be found here}

#2 A Wearable Breast Pump

Ok, so maybe you’re thinking, I don’t want a sit around and pump, I want something a little bit more mobile and if you’ve been on my channel before you know I have a couple of favorites (the Willow and the Elvie wearable pumps), but I am not going to recommend those for my stay at home friends.

For you, I would actually recommend the Freemie breast pump, and let me tell you why. You’ve got the cups that you can stick right in your bra, and then you just clip this pump on with a little clip on the back right onto your pants and then you go.

I love my Willow and my Elvie breast pumps, they are awesome pumps, but if you’re a SAHM and you’re going to be with your baby most of the time, you don’t need to spend 500$ on a pump! UNLESS you have 500$ to spend, and in that case here is a video you can watch to decide between the two! They ARE better pumps in my opinion. But if you are going to be home, you can deal with a little bit of tubing from the Freemie if you want to go with the budget option. The Freemie is much cheaper and it still gives you hands-free convenience.

So, get a fancy pump if you want, and I will say that they are more convenient and better, but this would actually be just fine for you and save you some money too.

#3 A Portable Breast Pump

My third recommendation for you would be, if you’re looking for a small and portable pump, I would get literally anything your insurance covers. Some options would be, the Ameda Mya (a good little pump, portable, rechargeable), the Baby Buddha ( portable, rechargeable, and has a lanyard which is pretty cool), These all come with traditional flanges so they will stick out a bit, but you are at home, so who cares. The Spectra 9 would also be another option for you. Again, these are all just small, portable pumps.

Now if you are going to be pumping a lot, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a couple of these for you because they are kind of a lighter duty pump, but if you are planning on being home, mostly with your baby, a little pump like this would be awesome. See if your insurance covers one and if it does, you can get almost any of them, they are all very similar.

If you want help to choose one, you can join our Facebook group! That’s exactly what it’s for.

Honorable Mention

Those would be my three recommendations depending on what style of pump you were looking for. But, (I can’t believe I’m going to say this because I review a lot of pumps and pumping is fun and cool) if you’re a stay at home mom and are with your baby almost all the time, you might not even need a pump. You could get away with a little hand-held pump like this Medela Manual Pump. It’s around 15$-30$ on Amazon and you do it all by hand. You can adjust the suction by how hard you use the hand pump. That might be very well all that you need.

Don’t feel that you have to go buy and get an expensive pump. If you are going to be with your baby, you might just need a cheap little hand pump. Anyway, that’s my honorable mention.

Okay, just one more idea….

But wait, I have another one and of course my favorite. The Haakaa! They call this a Haakaa silicone pump but it’s not like a traditional breast pump. I have lots of other videos on the Haaka and you can watch them here. It is used to catch the extra milk on the side that you are not breastfeeding from plus a little extra because it does have some suction. This is even cheaper than a hand pump. It usually runs between 8$-12$. Cheap!

If I ever wake up and the baby has slept extra long or he has gone long between feedings and I have one side that is struggling, I’ll usually feed him on one side and pop this on the other side. It won’t empty the whole breast, it will just give a little relief and give me a little bit of milk for the fridge so that maybe if I want to go to the store later and I don’t want to take the baby (what a treat that would be) there will be a bit of milk for him there. This is awesome and might be all that you actually need, especially if you’re planning on almost never leaving the baby.

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If you are exclusively breastfeeding your baby and are a stay at home mom, these will be my recommendations for you. I hope that it helps make it seem a little less daunting on which breast pump to choose. I’d love to help you though in our Facebook group. Most of the pumps I’ve mentioned have videos on my YouTube channel so you can check them out if you need more help!

Happy Pumping!