Freemie Liberty Review: The Breast Pump, Reimagined

Adrienne So

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8/10

The worst part of breast pumping? The logistics. Ask any working, breastfeeding mom and she'll describe the hassle of finding a private room, disrobing, and hooking up to a machine to pump every three to four hours. And then, after she's sat there for 20 minutes, she still needs to store the milk, wash everything, and put it all away.

As an ER doctor and mom of preemie twins, Stella Dao had to pump four to six times a day. She had a big incentive to improve the existing technology. Dao's solution was the Freemie cup, a new kind of breast pump that slides easily and discreetly into your bra. Most breast pumps attach to the breast using a flange, which screws onto a proprietary bottle. That makes every pumping experience, no matter the manufacturer, relatively similar: You have to change your clothes and put on a specialized hands-free pumping bra, hook the flanges into the bra, try to rearrange your clothes around you, start the pump, and cross your fingers that your coworkers don't accidentally walk in on your doing your best Captain Underpants impression in a dark corner.

In contrast, the Freemie cups fit inside the bra and under the clothes you're already wearing. The shells are large, but not embarrassingly so. Instead of skulking in supply closets with bottles dangling from your chest, you can pump quietly and discreetly while sitting at your desk or driving home from work.

Dao's company, Dao Health, released the Freemie cup in 2013. And this year at CES, Dao Health released its latest electric pump, the Freemie Liberty, which will be available for purchase in February for around $300. It's not perfect, but the Liberty is a potent reminder that pumping breast milk doesn't have to be terrible.

The Liberty pump is determinedly utilitarian. It reminds me more of an insulin pump for diabetics than a traditional breast pump. It's a small, gray, six-sided plastic device that fits in the palm of your hand and can clip onto your belt.

Each Freemie collection cup has five components: a breast funnel with a flange system that's sized to your body; a silicone membrane; a duckbill valve and valve base; and a closed cup. You assemble the membrane, valve, and valve base, then insert it inside the cup to click it closed. You can assemble the cup at home. Then when you're at work or traveling, you quickly insert the cup in your bra and stick the pump's rubber tubing into the top.

You can see vacuum speed, strength, battery life, and time pumped on the LCD screen. The rechargeable battery takes an hour and a half to charge; each charge lasted for three to four 15-minute pumping sessions. The pump has three different customizable memory settings. You can set your optimal vacuum strength and speed for each setting. I set a faster setting for letdown and a slower one for expression.

I pumped in a bathroom lounge while people walked in and out; I pumped on a plane. I even pumped in the jump seat of a pickup driving home from snowboarding.

There's also an auto-shutoff button, which you can use to turn off the pump after a certain amount of time, choosing from five minute intervals. If you don't select a shutoff time, the pump will automatically shut off after 40 minutes. The automatic shutoff is a pretty big improvement because the quieter and more discreet the pump, the easier it is to forget you have it on. Ever sit down to read a book and lose track of an hour? Now imagine that after that hour, you're not just late to dinner but you're drained drier than a California reservoir in August.

Most wonderfully, the Freemie is remarkably quiet—around 50 dB! My workhorse Medela Pump In Style clocks in at 60 dB. If it weren't for the enormous plastic shells under my shirt, people wouldn't even know that I was pumping.

If you’re used to pumping directly into a bottle, it takes some time to get used to the cup collection system. Don't let the picture on the box front fool you: You can't simply open the box, slip it on under your shirt, and immediately go shopping for hours at the mall while secretly expressing milk.

The cups need to fit as tightly as if you were holding it on with your hands, so you may need to adjust your bra accordingly. I had to sort through my nursing bras to find ones that worked, and occasionally had to hold the cups on with my hands. I could still walk around and run small errands; I just looked a little strange doing so. The breast funnels also only come in two sizes, 25-millimeter and 28-millimeter. For the most effective milk extraction, each funnel needs to fit your nipple. If yours don't happen to fit these particular funnel sizes, you might be SOL--although this February, Freemie will also be releasing a sub-brand called FitMie, a series of silicone inserts that fit inside the Freemie cups and will increase the range of sizes from 15 mm to 26 mm, in one-mm increments.

Given the design and that you're wearing it under your clothes, it's impossible to tell if it's working when you’re wearing it. Even on the highest setting, I didn't find the vacuum to be that noticeable. Occasionally, I’d turn the pump off after 15 to 20 minutes and remove the cup, only to find nothing there.

Freemie Freemie Liberty

Rating: 8/10

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The markings on the cups are difficult to read. During assembly, it can be hard to line up the printed arrow between the funnel and the cup, and the measurement tabulations are also in a slightly more opaque shade of opaque plastic. Would it really be that hard to print everything in black instead? Although the cup has a flat bottom so that you can put it on a counter, you can't store it directly in the cup, since it has an open pour-spout. Milk also has a tendency to get trapped in the cup.

Another downside: The end of day cleanup is a hassle. Most pumping moms have multiple sets of flanges and collection cups to get through the workday without washing pump parts, so I checked how much it would cost to purchase an extra set of collection cups. $60 on Amazon! The cups aren't dishwasher-friendly, so that's a lot of handwashing. You can't use quick-steam microwave sterilizer bags, either, so you have to boil everything at night instead.

Design flaws aside, this pump has so many great features that I was willing to forgive it the annoying ones. It was so nice to not make multiple treks to change my clothes after pumping, to not have to put up "Do Not Enter" signs and lock doors, and to not be constantly wondering if or when the worst possible person would walk in on me, half-disrobed while checking my email.

In addition to being quiet, the pump is also unbelievably small. It's less than a quarter of the size of other breast pumps that I’ve tried. Since I’m not tethered to an outlet, I can carry it around while getting a glass of water or running other small errands around my office or house. It's small enough to tote to and from the office, discreet enough to stick into a purse. I pumped in a bathroom lounge while people walked in and out; I pumped on a plane. I even pumped in the jump seat of a pickup driving home from snowboarding.

I also liked having a timer with automatic shut-off a lot. I don't fall asleep while pumping, but I do lose track of time while working. Setting the pump to shut off is a lot easier than setting a timer on my watch.

I wouldn't purchase the Liberty as a primary pump, or if I were a mom that pumped exclusively. It's not as efficient or fast at gathering milk as the Medela pumps, even if that style is louder, larger, and less convenient. But as a traveling pump, or even for mornings when I need to pump just a little before getting on with my day, the Liberty is a great product, even if it's lacking in execution. Breast pumping can be terrible, but it doesn't have to be. The Liberty proves that we’re getting there.

Update 1/26/2018 at 3:15 PM: This review has been updated to include information about Freemie's new fit system, FitMie, available in February.

Freemie Freemie Liberty

Rating: 8/10

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