breastfeeding and expressing

[jay3ttp]

Hi I am going to try and bf my 4th baby, due in November. I did bf my first two, but my 3rd was not possible. I have only ever done it for the first month and though I tried to enjoy it I couldn't. With my first my husband walked out when she was 5 days old so I was really not in the right state of mind to do it and with second I was moving house and totally un organised so didn't give it much of a chance. However this time I am settled in a nice home, with a supportive partner and my kids are all older so hoping that it will work out this time. My mum had 6 of us and bf until we were 1 yr old (her youngest is same age as my eldest), so I have her support and she is fantastic with advice, but she has never expressed. My partner wants to feed the baby and I want him to as well, so that I don't become isolated etc. Also I want to beable to go out as both sets of grandparents are eager to babysit. I would just like some advice on when to express and how much. I am not at all worried about my milk drying up more the opposite. I seem to have loads when I am feeding and can fill a beaker from one side dripping (not expressing) while baby on the other!! I am a bit worried that if I express and then miss a feed that I am going to leak really bad! Do you think that the milk that drips out of me would be ok to store and use for when I want to miss a feed, sounds really thick i know. I feel this would be alot easier but wasn't sure If I needed to express to get better milk??
jay xx

Message withdrawn

Jay, there is a ton of stuff, as YG says on the practicalities of expressing - have a browse when you have time

Yes, you can freeze and later use 'drip milk' - bear in mind it is likely to be less calorie-dense than milk you have deliberately expressed, so it's just possible your baby will glug it back quickly and not be as fully satisfied for as long as you might predict....it's fine to give it though.

The only other thing is to suggest you don't get hung up on expressing. You've had varying experiences, and getting bf up and running for a bit is probably a priority without stressing about whether and when to express or whether your partner and others can have a 'go'. There are years and years and years ahead where they can help and support you and babysit - they don't have to get going with this immediately : ) and in the case of your partner, bonding will happen simply because he loves the baby. He can show this in many ways - he doesn't have to feed from the first week or month or whatever.

Just a thought - expressing is great, and it's really useful to do it, but you don't have to do it, and you certainly don't have to do it in the early days.