Huge breast milk stash - why?!

[Newusername5678]

I'm currently pregnant and planning on breastfeeding. I have what feels like a really silly question (hence the name change!) Why do some mum's (ones on social media for example) build up huge stashes of frozen breast milk? Like dozens of bags filling freezer drawers?

I get having a couple of extra ones around is probably handy, but why would you need dozens of them?

Thanks - too embarrassed to ask this in real life!

I've noticed in some of the Facebook groups there's a bit of competitive expressing, freezer drawers full so they can leave the baby or just in case (UK mum's, not Americans going back to work). With baby number two, I just can't be bothered. We've made a half hearted attempt at giving her a bottle but I'm too lazy to express much.

I had a stash of frozen breast milk in 4oz sachets because I went back to FT work when they were 3 mos old. I really wanted to exclusively breastfeed and did everything I could to manage it. You need a stash to start so you can leave breastmilk with the child care centre so they can feed your baby while at work. You then need some back up stashed away because when the baby hits a growth spurt they will drink more in a day than you can pump at first. Too, the advice back then was to “pump and dump” if you have a glass of wine so you’d need some stash milk to cover that feed. The stash was also good for DH to take turns feeding the baby.

@CoalCraft I looked into it too. I would have had to drive 50 miles to our nearest big city hospital. They used to do regional pick ups, but funding was cut. I didn't feel like doing that in the early days.

Also because it’s free so if supply goes down/back to work etc

I’ve noticed this, I just assumed they had oversupply so we’re just keeping it ‘just in case’

It’s not something that’s needed. Some people pump a lot more than others which can make building up a stash much easier.

If you pump often then you’re body makes more milk to keep up with the demand which then means you have to carry on pumping or you’ll be too ‘full’.

Probably mostly Americans where they’ll be exclusively pumping because they’re back to work at 12 and baby is going to FT daycare and there’s recently been a mass formula contamination and resulting nationwide shortage. So it’s breast milk from a bottle or nothing and it’s unsurprising some moms get a bit panicky about it.

Exactly this for me too.

The stash dwindled over the months, because my daughter drank more milk during the day while she was at nursery than I pumped at work.

I built up a stash because I wanted to breastfeed for a full year, which is when you can switch to cows milk as I recall. I was returning to work when DS1 was 8 months old, so I needed a supply for nursery to give. I knew my supply would dwindle as he weaned, and I also never wanted nursery to be short, so I built up a stash. It all got used.
If you're having a year off work and will always be around to feed your baby yourself, then it isn't necessary. But it means you can't go out and leave them with someone else if you're exclusively breastfeeding.

A few of my friends kept a handy stash so at Xmas they could enjoy a few drinks. The next day they would pump and dump after the alcohol.

I have been expressing twice a day since DC2 was 2 weeks old to build my supply- I've gone from getting maybe 50 extra mls per day to 150-250 extra. I plan on ebf for at least 6 months, but will start using it for my own flexibility when we have some kind of a routine for feeding (still a bit clustered at the moment). It just means I can have a night out, or go to the gym or have my hair done without feeling stressed about needing to get back to DC2.

I did the same when DC1 was born, expressing 4 or 5 times a day, because I was going back to work at 13 weeks- had 14 liters in the freezer at that stage 😱. It was awful, glad to be taking more leave this time.

Sounds like serial killer behaviour to me

I think a lot of the social media posts are from America, so they could be back at work within a few weeks of birth and need to build up while they can. It's often easier to express when your with baby, so it could that once their working baby will drink more then they're producing, so they need to top up from the extra.

When I was breastfeeding I was away from DS for one day a week, but liked to keep a few days worth, so I didn't need to worry if I was late back, or didn't get time to pump as much as usual, or if I had to go in to hospital or something unexpectedly.

Gawd OP I had a very hungry baby but sooooooooooo much milk I had a freezer full of it. There was no local milk bank to donate to so I used it in creative ways - in my older kid's porridge in the mornings etc.

I pumped at work for comfort and to maintain supply for the evenings.

Thanks! Sounds like if I'm not going back to work quickly (planning to take the whole year) then just having a bit extra for flexibility is fine. And I guess doing it in the first 6 months when there's more supply makes sense too.

Some of it does seem "competitive" as @NotMyDayJob said which made me wonder if I was missing something.

Pumping sounds tough, especially if it's cause your baby is in hospital or having problems latching, I'm sorry you had to go through that

I exclusively pumped for over a year so had a pretty decent stash at any given time. I used some of it for nursery and then the rest to give her after I stopped pumping as much. Exclusive pumping is time consuming so the stash meant that I could pump less towards the end but still use breast milk.

This is not actually necessary, but yes, particularly in the US some people "pump and dump" after drinking.

(The reason it's not necessary is that a baby is exposed to the same blood-alcohol level in a very different way when it receives it via milk than when it is sharing your bloodstream in pregnancy. You can be totally off your tits and your milk will still contain only a tiny percentage of alcohol, which becomes less still when digested by the baby. If you are sober enough to hold your baby, you can feed your baby. If you are not sober enough to hold your baby, you should probably just go and lie down until you sober up.)

I pumped for my second. You pump every 3 hours for the first 12 weeks and the goal is to create an oversupply so you can start cutting pumps (because pumping is very labour intensive). I was an oversupplier and couldn't store the amount of milk I produced. I donated 30 litres when he was 6 weeks old to 2 families because we were moving internationally and I couldn't transport it.

When I came back to the UK it was during covid you needed a blood test to donate to a milk bank but every non essential healthcare had shut down so I couldn't donate. I remember one morning pumping session pumping 32 ounces in one session. (Will attach a photo). In the end I just couldn't store it so I had to dump about a litre a day when I was down to 4 pumps. An oversupply does make pumping a lot easier but much higher risk for mastitis.

I felt like a massive failure when he wouldn't breastfeed as DS1 fed like a champ for 18m so it was nice to be able to feed DS2 that way and I would have given it to anyone and everyone if they would have taken it.

I produced no milk whilst pregnant, it didn't come in until well over a week after baby was born. I was never good at expressing and it would take me 2/3 hours to get a bottle! I pain stakingly expressed 2 bottles inbetween feeding baby for emergencies and froze them. It turned out my baby wouldn't drink them!! I looked it up and it said something about the taste being different once defrosted, I was thankful i didn't have loads in the freezer!

I had a stash in case I wanted to go on a night out, a day away, or just so my DH could do some night feeds.

I always liked to have a least 24 hours worth in the freezer just in case.

Sometimes milk has high lipase activity and tastes wrong after freezing so the baby won’t drink it, so it’s not ideal to freeze loads before you know that it will work. Also breastmilk changes its composition with the age of the baby so I wouldn’t keep it for ages. For isolated moments where you need it formula is fine if the baby takes it (didn’t stop my son breastfeeding to age 3).
But it’s often hard to get an ebf child to accept any bottle, whether it’s formula or milk.

I'm so doing this next time if I have loads spare. Mat pay in this contry is awful!

Because the stuff you pump is so precious (takes so long! Makes you so thirsty!) that you just can't bear the thought of wasting even a drop and when they chuck it all up it just DESTROYS YOU AND DON'T YOU KNOW HOW HARD I WORKED TO PRODUCE THAT AND OH MY GOD I JUST CAN'T BEAR IT I THINK I MIGHT GO INSANE

I did this. My baby struggled to feed so was combination fed. Boob and bottles of expressed. I knew the boob wouldn't likely last as long as I'd planned and so I built up a stash. It meant when he did inevitably drop the boob (as he found bottle feeds easier) that I had a stash. Anytime he had a sniffle I used the breast milk for 24 hours. It made me feel better and it did seem to help him knock off whatever illness he had brewing. I was sad when the stash ran out but so pleased with myself that I basically gave him a big further boost of breast milk.

I built up a bit of a stash for when I went back to work after 10 months. Sent it to nursery with son but he wouldn’t touch it and preferred to drink water and just have milk from me when he got home! I think a lot of it got chucked in the end. I wish I’d spent less time pumping and stressing about it.

It’s useful to have a little bit in case you want/need a bit of time away but you can probably get enough for this using a cheap hakaa pump on the opposite breast when feeding. I used to get my partner to give an evening bottle of EBM about 10pm when mine was little so I could get a few hours sleep from 8 until about midnight, then I’d take over when the next feed was due.