Expressing colostrum

[BabyBooDue]

Hello!

Hoping you lot can give me some advice

I'm 37+3 and the colostrum is here! Breasts don't seem to be leaking on their own but I can hand express some (found when nipple stimulating to get things moving )

So far I'm swaying towards FF rather than BF the baby, but wondering if I can start expressing some colostrum now and save it? Any tips would be appreciated for how to express/store and how long to give it.

Thanks!

Bump!

I only expressed colostrum after my babies were born. I think doing it beforehand is a good idea though; not even necessarily so that you feed it to the baby, but just to get some practice in and also get you used to the discomfort. I didn’t like hand expressing and collecting it very much, but I’ve heard that if you practice it gets better. I’ve only ever had to do it the day my babies were born and never did it again.

Re storage, I expect it will be teeny amounts, as their feeds are very small at the beginning. I think you can get special storage containers for it though. You can freeze breast milk and it keeps for a good while in a deep freeze, not so long in a freezer compartment of a fridge.

You can get sterile 1ml syringes on Amazon. I’d use those and freeze.
I’d chat to your MW about how/when to give.

Yep, sterile 1ml syringe. Gently hand express and watch as beads form on top of your nipples. Syphon these off with the syringe. Cap the syringe when full and freeze in a sterile bag such as a Lansinoh breastmilk storage bag.

You are likely to get tiny amounts such as 0.2 or 0.5 ml at first but it's all good!

Great advice! Thank you