When I was pregnant I bought a Tommee Tippee starter set in Argos which included this manual breast pump. I was planning on having a go at breast feeding my twins and knowing nothing about breast pumps I thought it might be useful.
My first few days of breast feeding in hospital weren't easy and I was expressing using one of the hospital's electric pumps after every feed to help get my milk supply going. When I got home I needed to be able to continue with the expressing so got out my manual pump.

Pump preparation
Before using the pump you need to ensure that all the parts have been washed up and sterilised. I used my electric steriliser to do this but included with this pump is it's own steriliser box that can be used in the microwave. This is a great idea for when you are having to express away from the house and even though I didn't get on with this pump I did use this sterilising box a lot for bottles when I was away from home.

Putting it together
The pump only has 3 parts to put together so is very simple to do even when you haven't slept for days! Part of the pump is a Tommee Tippee bottle so you have this for when you want to feed the expressed milk to your baby. All the pump parts are BPA free which is always good to know.

Using the pump
To use the pump you place the cup over your breast and press the plastic handle up and down. This is where I had problems. I didn't find the cup fitted particularly well and the pump would rub when I pressed the handle down, ouch! It was awkward to hold the pump and keep pressing the handle up and down. After suffering the discomfort for a couple of sessions I gave up with it, I wasn't even getting 10ml of milk from it and I just didn't have the energy to keep trying. Luckily I was due a visit from my midwife who arranged for me to borrow one of their electric pumps and I used this until I was producing enough milk for my babies. When I decided to try expressing again a couple of months later I bought a Medela swing pump which was great. I was never tempted to try this manual pump again.

Storing milk
If you've managed to express enough milk to store included with this pump is a milk storage pot. This has small quantities marked on it so you know how much you've produced. I found this pot really useful for mixing medicine for one of my babies so it did get used just not for storing milk!

Also included
Included with this pump are 6 Tommee Tippee breast pads, obviously 6 didn't last long but they were good quality and comfortable.

Price and availability
This pump is widely available and currently costs (July 2012) £24.90 at Argos or £29.99 from Amazon. I sold mine on Ebay and there is a good market for these on there.

Would I recommend?
No, I'd save your money towards a more expensive electric pump if you want to express.