Btw, i saw this post selling Medela PIS at $400. It sounds quite a gd buy.
I rented Medela pump when i had my #1. I was so engorged after I return home from hospital, I tot the manual pump will help but it did not. It cost me $300+ to rent for a mth. Definitely more worthwhile to buy a pump and use for many months.
I was sourcing for 2nd hand PIS with a $500 budget in mind tat time. Did not get to buy, and my fren offered to lend me when we met at my gal's full month party. This time, my cousin will lend me, so no need to buy again.
Having been thru searching and hoping to buy at the last minute, I would urge first time mummies to be prepared. I was not so prepared and was so painfully engorged until blue black on the breast, and spending quite some $$ on renting the pump.
Another advise, dun give up trying to breastfeed even you dun have a lot of milk initially. My flow came only after 7 days (my MIL ask me "got milk or not, why so little" everyday), and I can fully latch on only after one month of "fighting" wif my stubborn baby. I breastfeed her for 7 mths.