At what point between breast feeds do I express?

[HFinchy]

Hello world of Mumsnet - this is my first post (first of many I'm sure!) My daughter is 2 weeks old on Monday and before long I want to try expressing some milk as I need to be away from her for four hours at some point during week 4. Anyway, my main confusion is about when to express milk - right after a feed, halfway between feeds, etc? Any help gratefully received!

Lots of people find they get more milk if they express from one side while feeding from the other.

Welcome to Mumsnet! And congratulations on the birth of your daughter.

Personally I'd express between feeds, so that your breasts have time to "fill up" a bit, and in the morning (when your supply tends to be biggest). And I'd try her out on the bottle a few days before you need to be away from her because she might not take the teat that easily.

Do you definitely need to be away from her that soon though? It's still very early days with establishing breastfeeding and the general advice is not to introduce a bottle until breastfeeding is established (if you are largely breasfeeding of course - obviously if you are bottle feeding you'd've introduced a bottle earlier!).

Oh yes, during a feed is a good idea too (although I never quite figured out logistics of how to balance the baby and pump at the same time).

Thanks Wigeon and RitaMorgan. I am trying to avoid the separation but am not sure I'll be able to. Meantime she's gained 12 ozs since she was born (plus losing and regaining 3 ozs after birth) and my midwife suggested that breast feeding's therefore been pretty well established already but I appreciate the words of caution. I'll have a "practice" in the next couple of days and see how we get on. Thanks again!