Advise needed for expressing

[Celou]

Please girls answer this:
I want to breastfeed and express. I was told that I should buy an electric pump as opposed to a manual one as they are way too slow. That's not a problem. However, I haven't got a clue where to put the milk and what to do with it after expressing it. I heard about presterilized bottle bags, but still, what do you do with the milk afterwards? Do you put it straight into a bottle? I mean, surely you need to sterilize the bottle?
Sorry for being thick but I need advice desperately as I need to buy the equipment and know what I'm doing. Thanks!

[lou33]

You will be able to sterilise the main parts of the pump, and the expressed milk can either be stored in the (sterilised) pump bottle or transferred to a (sterilised) baby bottle. Or you could freeze the ebm in ice cube trays. Hth.

[Celou]

Thanks. When you say a sterilized baby bottle, is that pre-sterilized or sterilized by me? Or doesn't it matter?
And when you pick up the milk from the fridge or freezer, how do you heat it to the right temperature (sorry I know this is stupid as well, but no one has actually come up with an answer for me!!).

[hercules]

You can express straight into bottles you have sterilised yoursel or sterilised bags. These can then be stored at room temp for a few hours=, in a fridge for a few days or in a freezer for 3 months plus. If freesing do in small quantitiers so not wasting any.
To defrost or warm simply hold under the hot tap until warmed or defrosted.
If you give more details it's easier to give more advice. What are your circumtanves ie where are you going to express and why?

[Celou]

I want to express to be a bit more independant, and to enable my husband to play his part. Also I was told that exclusive breast feeding can lead to the baby refusing the bottle altogether when the time comes. Also, you produce more milk in the morning and if the baby doesn't feed much you end up wasting it and needing it at night time when you haven't got as much. I want to persevere with breast feeding and not give up after a week or so, and expressing seems to be a good idea.

[hercules]

I would suggest you speak to a breast feeding consellor for proper advice as what you said isnt true. Breastfeeding works on supply and demand and the best way to do this is by baby feeding frequently. Expressing isnt as effecient and it is not advisable to express until the breastfeeding is established around 6 weeks.
By introducing a bottle earlier you may find this confuses yout baby and causes problems breastfeedung.
Your milk iss there all the time and you cannot wasted it when it is in your breats - it doesnt go anywhere nor will you be low in the evenings.
The nct have a help line.

[hercules]

Your dh can do lots of other things eg bathing, cuddling, nappies etc. With expressing you have all the extra work of steriliding etc and you will find breastfeeding harder. Please do speak tob a counsellor and search pasy threadas here.

[hercules]

0870 444 8708

[tiktok]

Celou - it's a shame you were told this about exclusive breastfeeding...there are many ways to help a baby take his milk in other ways if you have to, and a browse of the boards here will show you that individual experience varies widely.

There's no need to express in the mornings as an 'insurance policy' against low supply in the evening. Bf works best if you remove the milk frequently (by the baby feeding, or expressing if this is not done) as this drives the supply. Using bottled expressed breastmilk in the evenings (before bf is well and truly established, by which time the odd bottle is no big deal) to make up for some supposed gap in supply actually reduces the supply - the bottle of ebm means the breasts may go longer than they should without the milk being taken from them, and that means they make less. Hope you have a good bf experience...and if you do express, you don't need to warm the milk as long as it is defrosted

[JanZ]

Titok has given you great advice as usual!

However, in response to your questions, here is some of my experience.

I expressed while ds was still very young because of various issues with ds' weight gain and his laziness at sucking.

Although I started with a borrowed electric pump from the hospital, I "graduated" on to a manual pump (the Avent Isis) which I much preferred - and no WAY was it it too "slow".

I used a combination of bottles (I had a load as my friend had given me hers) which I wet sterilised (Milton fluid) which I personally found easier as I could just leave it in there until needed (but I seem to be the exception) and the pre-sterlised bags. The Avent system allows you to fit the bags into a "feeding" bottle, but personally I always found that that leaked, so I would pour it into a bottle before giving it to ds. I also used to de-frost the bags inside a sterlised container, as often they had a wee leak after freezing - and it was heartbreaking seeing that precious ebm leaking away!

I got ds used to taking milk straight from the fridge or at room temperature - made life MUCH easier!

Also, every time I (or dh) gave him ebm, I made sure to express at the same time - to ensure that I kept my supply up.

[lou33]

I was just about to post a call out for Tiktok, but I can see you are already here! Tiktok is the one to talk to about bf'ing.

[lou33]

I also used to give milk straight from the fridge, but if you want to warm it, stand the bottle in some warm water until it is body temp (i.e feels neither hot or cold when splashed onto the inside of your wrist).

[Celou]

Lou33, JanZ and Tiktok, thank you so much for your advice. That's what I needed, different experiences, I feel a lot more confident about the whole issue now. Especially what Tiktok said about the manual pump, which I might try now, as electric pumps are quite costly and if expressing doesn't suit me then it's a waste of money.
I have read a lot of books about breastfeeding and listened to a lot of BF counsellors, and to say that the baby will be confused if you give him bottle and breast is absolute rubbish.

[tiktok]

It's not exactly rubbish, Celou, but it's a bit dogmatic. If a baby is being breastfed, and the breastfeeding is going badly, if you then give this baby a bottle which does work (ie delivers the milk into the mouth!!) without working carefully on fixing the breastfeeding, the baby may well end up preferring the bottle (not so much confused as being very sensible!!). So giving bottles to a breastfed baby has to be done with care.

However, I have come across babies who prefer the bottle when breastfeeding is going really well....I think there may be more going on here, and it's true this is less likely to happen than when the bf isn't ok.

No one can generalise out of their own experience, or even the experience of a handful of mothers. What works ok with one person may not with another.

[muddaofsuburbia]

Celou - I started expressing every night at about 9pm ish when ds had gone to bed at 7pm. Dh then gave him the bottle I'd expressed at 11pm ish (we woke him at that time). That meant I could go to bed after I'd expressed for some extra sleep ready for the night shift . It also meant I could go out for an evening with dh and not have to give ds formula - although I think my mum was a bit squeamish about the idea of holding my milk (she's a bottle feeder through and through!)

I used an Avent Isis pump and it was really good although a bit fiddly to put together at first. I used bottles rather than bags which were a bit of a pain tbh.

Good luck!

[JanZ]

Ditto Muddaofsuburbia re the Avent pump and the bags. One of the best bits of advice I got was from another mum at the breastfeeding support group and was that the first time you put together the pump, you'll curse it - but actually, once you've got the hang of it, it's dead easy!

And I only ever used the bags when I'd run out of bottles.

Hope all this advice helps you, Celou! Have you asked at the maternity hospital if they have a breast feeding support group or a breast feeding counsellor based there - they may have an lelectric pump they could lend you if you wanted to see if it worked for you.

[meysey]

hi

yes the Avent Isis pump worked better for me than an electric one - physically and psychologically as I didn't feel I was being milked at the dairy! you can also use it easily if you go back to work and want to express in the day.

the bags are handy as you can attach them to special hollow bottles. avent do some but my ante natal teacher recommended the playtex system... you don't need to sterilise the teat after the first time and it worked a treat with DS1. playtex bags seem a bit stonger than avent bags, are cheaper, and fit the avent pump. however not all chemists stock them.

[JanZ]

The other thing I should have made clear was the the most "expressed" feeding ds ever got was every second feed. (Except when I went away skiing for 10 days when he was 6 months old. Had to do a LOT of expressing in advance for that, plus filled the chalet freezer with expressed milk while I was out there! ! )

"Booby" milk was the norm.

But all the expressing did stand me in good stead when I went back to work when ds was 4 months old. I was able to continue fully b/f until he was a year old.

[hercules]

Not sure if I agree about giving a bottle to begin with not causing problems It certainly did with me and a few people i know. I wish i'd been told this with ds as it would have saved lots of problems. My cousun in law couldnt breastfeed at all after giving bottles. I thought you might fibd it helpful to know there could be a problem but I'm sorry if my post was such rubbish!

[hercules]

Sorry - absolute rubbish!! I only breastfed for 4 years so what do I know.

[hercules]

I did actually say "may" not all babies. Sorry to go on but your comment about my advice being absolute rubbish has annoyed me.

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

[kbaby]

Muddaofsuburbia im glad you mentioned that you expressed for the last feed at night. Thats what Im hoping to do. Ideally I would like DP to give the last feed to allow me to get a bit of extra sleep. However I can see from others experience that this may or may not work.

Whats the best age for the baby for me to start doing the above?

ps Celou, I was told not to store the breast milk in the fridge door as its too warm.