Breastmilk storage - how do milk bags work?

[KirstyDaisyBBandFifi]

HI - I am expressing breastmilk 10 - 12 times a day. Am now trying to work out about storage etc... can anyone tell me about breastmilk beags - do they fit to the pumps.... Also has anyone ever use the different nipple size breast shields for the medela pumps? I've got the ones the hospital provided but am not sure how you measure and if it makes and difference to comfort or quantity of milk? Thanks for anyone who replies...

I'm not sure on the bags thing some of them do fit on the pump but it depends on the make. I pump into the bottle that came with the pump then transfered into the bag.

And yes having the right size bread shield is important for comfort and effecient expressing. If you have a look on the medela web site I belive they have some info on how it should fit.

I also pump into the cup that came with the pump and pour it into the bag. Not sure on shield Q though.

Hi! I did a lot of pumping when my DS was refusing the breast. I found that quite a lot of milk is lost every time you transfer milk. So do try to pump straight into the bag. Medela bags can be attached straight onto Medela pumps. However, bags are not ideal for two reasons - you can't feed from them and they are not reusable. It is much better to buy a set of bottles which you can also freeze. Axifeed bottles are used for milk in hospitals and because they are square, they don't take up a lot of space in the fridge. You can order them from www.pumps4mums.Co.UK where they have sets of bottles of different sizes. I think they are brilliant!

ValeriaS - can I ask what teats you use with Axifeed bottles? as I can't see any teats with them - although they seem a brilliant idea - and I am becoming so annoyed by how much milk is lost transferring from pump to bottle.. Thanks for the info

They gave me some NUK classic orthodontic teats at the hospital. They had a yellow plastic base and the latex bit was also yellowish. My DS loved the teats - he could close his mouth tightly around it so there was no leakage from the sides (like with the rubbish TT closer to nature teats). Because they are very soft, he could also get every last drop of the milk.

They looked like this <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=kiwibaby.com/images/nuk_classic_latex_teat.jpg&imgrefurl=kiwibaby.com/Nuk.php&usg=__L3S5DEuXfdT6LshxXM25pGZXImU=&h=365&w=315&sz=7&hl=en&start=7&zoom=1&tbnid=tWXPLHaEjP-BMM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=104&ei=lSeFT9W2B-Gj0QX-7LXMBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dorthodontic%2Blatex%2Bteat%2BNUK%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1I7DKUK_en-GB%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=kiwibaby.com/images/nuk_classic_latex_teat.jpg&imgrefurl=kiwibaby.com/Nuk.php&usg=__L3S5DEuXfdT6LshxXM25pGZXImU=&h=365&w=315&sz=7&hl=en&start=7&zoom=1&tbnid=tWXPLHaEjP-BMM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=104&ei=lSeFT9W2B-Gj0QX-7LXMBw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dorthodontic%2Blatex%2Bteat%2BNUK%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1I7DKUK_en-GB%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1