Medela Sonata® Smart Double Electric Breast Pump

5 years ago I bought the Pump in style. 3 years ago I bought the freestyle and about 9 months ago I bought the Sonata (pre-Medela having the Flex breast shields). I have used them all and the best one is the freestyle. The pump in style is big, loud and needs to be plugged in (Freestyle and Sonata do not need to be plugged in to work). However the pump in style is just as big as the Sonata so if you don't care about the noise or having to plug it in, no need to spend more money. Plus like everyone said minimal parts to wash. So on to the Sonata… It is not as quiet as they say. The button on it that is supposed to make it quiet just silences the timer. Nothing else. It is just as loud or quite as the Freestyle. However it is much bigger than the freestyle and it is not hands free. You have to carry the thing around whereas the freestyle you can stick it in your pocket, clip it to your pants/bra, etc. You cannot do that with the Sonata. In addition, the Sonata has more pieces to wash and I have noticed that if you don't let me dry fully or next to the ice pack, the silicone part start to condensate. It is a pain to get the unit in to and out of the bag but the bag from Freestyle, which is a great bag, is not big enough for the Sonata. That is how BIG the Sonata is. Next, the new functionality of the wifi is a waste. Yes, I used it in the beginning, as it was nice to see how long I was pumping, but having to enter in the amount of milk pumped each time was a waste and with a newborn, you just don't have the time for that. That leads me to the biggest issue I have with the Sonata, as if all the above was not enough, the more high tech it is, then more likely it is to break. When I first received my Sonata, half of the numbers were not working. So the company sent me a new one. About a month later I got an error message – the unit would not work. The battery ended up dying and after being recharged, it started working again – never saw that error message again. But that brings me to the final annoyance with the Sonata. When I start it up, every time without fail, it tells the pump(s) are not connected. I end up having to play with the hose, unplug from one breast, then replug, unplug the other until the unit realizes I am trying to pump both breasts. I end up wasting 2 minutes of pumping time doing this. Every time. The only pro of the Sonata is that it does pump well when it wants to, however the Freestyle works just as well.

I am inducing lactation to help provide milk for a friend who recently found out she can not breastfeed at all. This pump is amazing. Everyone says the suction power on here is very strong so they don't use the high levels. I use the higher levels and I like the suction and rhythm from the pump. I like that this pump does not hurt my nipples at all even when on a higher setting. I feel that I get more milk from this pump in general. I don't get much milk as I am inducing lactation and still working my way up to more milk but I think this pump really is helping my milk supply come in. I went from not being able to hand express more than a couple drops at work, to using this pump for a week and then being able to express a half ounce. (I was using a different pump before this one). There is something about the rhythm that mimics the symphony breast pump that I think really has helped me. The only down side is that you can not buy the tubing separately and the spare parts are pricey. Battery life is not as good as I hoped for but I truly think the power of this pump makes up for it. I like that there is a warranty with this in case something does happen considering the price of the pump.

I am in love with this pump! This is our second child and I wish we had this one with our first. We purchased the Pump in Style originally with our first and it did not work for me.Eventually I dried up because the pump did not work for my body. We got rid of that pump and needed to purchase a new one for this baby. My husband and I had a little sticker shock with the Sonata but I knew the other option wasn't going to work. We went ahead and purchased it praying it would work better than the first pump did for us. WOW!! Upon the first use I was able to get at least double what I got with the Pump in Style. The Money spent was SO worth it!! I love that it can be taken anywhere and that it has the ability to sync with my phone. I would also recommend getting the hands free bra so that you can pump and still get things done. I can not say enough good things about this pump and I will be recommending it to all my friends.

I recently gave birth to y second child. With the first child I was able to pump once I returned to work using the Medela pump in style. It worked perfectly for the time that I used it. The second go around I decided to try a different style and went with the Sonata. I thought about it a long time before pulling the trigger on such an expensive item, but I am so glad I did. It is so quiet and luxurious...I had no idea what I was missing. The portability is also so very handy. I have been back to work one week and I am super happy with the purchase. I have not really used the smartphone function yet. Also I was able to purchase this pump as an “upgrade” since my insurance did not cover the entire amount of this model. The remaining balance I was able to take care of with my health savings account. I do agree with the previous review about the bag. I actually really like the bag it comes with, but I am not able to fit the assembled pump parts in with the pump and cooler.

I purchased the Sonata breast pump 6 months ago directly from the hospital, started using it 5 months ago and now it no longer holds a charge and at times if it isn't plugged in it won't even turn on. I bought this pump because I thought the wireless feature was going to be helpful. The Bluetooth feature is hit & miss, sometimes it records my session and other times I'll check my app later and see that I have to do a manual entry because my last session didn't save for some reason. It's unfortunate because this pump is pretty expensive and has cool features if they actually worked properly. I'm highly disappointed.