Freezing current milk for twins due next year?

[willisurvive3under2]

Not sure if I'm going mad.

I BF 15 month old DS morning and evening (evening feed is petering out as he's not fussed). I'm also 17 weeks pregnant with twins.

Would it make any sense to freeze some milk for the twins in case they need to be in the NICU or my milk doesn't come in straight-away? I don't know if I'll still be feeding toddler come April.

Also, any reason why I should stop? I've been told it may be dangerous to keep BFing through a twin pregnancy, can't find any evidence though!

Any advice?

[ladystarkers]

No advice except contact the professional...BFN, La leche league tonane a couple. Good luck.

[RavingRoo]

You surely can’t store it for more than 6 months right? 6 month freezer rule applies to non-human paateurized dairy products which have fewer bacteria than bm tso it would def apply to bm.

[willisurvive3under2]

Yep, would definitely be 4-5 months. If I do it after Christmas I'll be in the window.

[QueenAravisOfArchenland]

At 17 weeks, I can't imagine you'd be able to get much out to freeze...? My milk was virtually gone by then, and what was left probably wouldn't have responded to a pump. Have you actually expressed lately?

Feeding through pregnancy has been shown to have no negative effect on pregnancy generally, but given the tendency of twins to be early and the effects of nipple stimulation they may be being very cautious about triggering premature labour.

[QueenAravisOfArchenland]

Are you talking about expressing and freezing colostrum rather than mature milk? By 20 weeks or so your milk will be either gone altogether or have changed over to colostrum.

[willisurvive3under2]

I don't really know! I guess the milk I'm making now won't be ok for tiny newborns? It's probably designed for toddler DS, right?

How do I know when I start making colostrum?

[willisurvive3under2]

I haven't expressed in a while, no - I'd like to give it a try, just not sure if it's a sensible idea!

[Chaosofcalm]

I believe you milk changes to adapt the needs of your baby. Some how your boobs analyse your baby’s salvia.

At least that is what I have been told. But definitely ring LLL or someone who know what they are talking about.

[Codlet]

No, your milk changes as your baby gets older. I don’t think the milk your body is producing now for your toddler would be suitable for a newborn.

[QueenAravisOfArchenland]

The milk you're producing now wouldn't be tailored for a newborn, but nor would it do any harm - it would still be better adapted to a newborn than formula.

But I really don't see you getting anything worth talking about out with a pump and your mature milk will fairly soon dry up completely, then change to very small quantities of sticky yellow colostrum. You could only really tell when exactly this happens by hand expressing and seeing what you get out. Is your son swallowing anymore when he feeds, or just dry nursing? Colostrum generally starts somewhere between 16 and 23 weeks.

You can hand-express and freeze colostrum for after the birth but it's a fiddly job and usually advised not to do it until after 37 weeks just in case it triggers pre-term labour. That probably is a higher risk with twins.

[willisurvive3under2]

Thank you. I think he's actually drinking as he often has a burp afterwards and I've seen milk trickle down his chin only recently. But I have no idea how much he takes! I will give La Leche League a shout.