what equipment is required to express breast milk?

[jenny260906]

Please could someone advise on what equipment i need to buy to enable me to express breast milk. I have nothing yet so will be starting from scratch. Also please could you recommend a breast pump?

Many thanks in advance!

I bought an Avent hand pump first of all and found it an absolute nightmare. Then I went to get an electirc one. I bought the Boots one, only because Avent was so expensive and I found it worked extremely well and was much more efficient and hassle free. All you need are is the pump itself, and some bottles to express into and store in the fridge (or you can get special bags you can freeze) and a form of sterilaising the equipment. Oh and breast pads

HTH

I bought two packs from Tesco, avent steriliser box which had a microwave sterilliser and some bottles, then avent breast pump wich also had some bottles.

I found both very good and didnt have to buy anything else. Actually, my husband went out at about 1 in the morning when I was having problems breastfeeding at the start. I lasted til 8 months, 6months exclusively so I wound def recomend them.

my baby is only 5 days old but the feeding is really getting me down and i can't deal with the lack of sleep so was hoping to buy everything tomorrow and start expressing. How do i go about expressing? do i do it at a certain time of day? before or after ive fed the baby? for how long? how many times a day etc etc? i have no idea and i find it all very confusing.

Please help

When you feed her first thing in the morning how long does she feed for and on one/ both breasts?

Sending you lots of hugs, my ds1 is only 13 weeks now and the exhaustion of those first few weeks I will never forget!

he feeds on both breasts and varies the length of feeds... from 10 mins to 30 mins

Does he empty one breast first?

The best pump is the medela electric one. I think expressing works best if you use 2 pumps and express at the same time. But that will cost you a fortune. I actually found hand expressing the quickest and easiest. It does take a while to get the hang of it though. I used to use my thumb and index finger and pinch down on my nipple, the milk used to spray out once i got a let down. Give it a go tonight. You may find you dont need a pump.

The ideal is to expres in the morning because that is usually when your supply is at its best. If he wasn't completely emptying one breast first I would suggest you only feed him on one side and then when he empties that, offer him the other and then express until that's empty.

You can obviously express at other points during the day if you find your supply is good.

Be careful of expressing to much as your body takes its cue of how much to produce by how much is being used. You could become over-supplyed and lots of leaking etc if you expres too much because your body will try to keep supplying that.

You can put the expressed milk in the fridge and keep it in there for 24 hours adding to it during that time. You must through away 24 hours after the first expressed bit went in the bottle. When you want to use it just warm it a bit in warm water

I'm in the throws of deciding which breast pump to buy myself at the moment (BF DS2 who is 2 weeks) but all I can say is that last time around with DS1 the avent isis manual would have been too hard work for the amount I need to express at the moment so I'm edging towards the medela swing at the moment and I've heard the mini-electric is good. I think whether you go manual/electric dpends on how often you're going to express. Also have yuo checked to see if your local maternity unit do a rental scheme? - I'm renting one at the moment for £3 per week. Only reason for buying my own is the hospital one is too heavy to cart between home and work.

one more tip - decide which pump you're getting BEFORE you buy a steriliser - some breast pump parts can't be microwaved for example.

Good luck!

hi jenny, i bought the avent electric one (and used the bottles that came with the avent microwave steriliser).

when i first used it, i found it difficult but once i got the hang of it, i remember thinking, thank god i got the electric one because there's no way i could hand pump this.

BUT... now i use the pump manually (it converts) and actually i find this SO much easier. Once you've mastered it, you don't really have to pump continually, you can pump and not release for a while and the milk just flows - is unbelievable how your boobs spurt milk so!

just remember to drink LOADS of water and keep eating so you produce enough milk. i found i tended to exhaust my supply a bit as you kind of need the milk you express for later, for the next feed...

Also, take it easy, rest loads. This really does make a difference.

I'm still B/F at 5 1/2 months but i won't pretend it's all been plain sailing. Hope my advice will help you!

When it comes to storing your breastmilk you can also freeze it too. At one stage I was producing a lot more than DD needed and my local hospital would come and collect it.

If you are interested in the Medela Swing then check out Breastfeeding Heaven as that is the cheapest place I have found most of my stuff.

Thank you everyone for your help!