Hand expressing

[yumeymummy]

Anyone that does it regularly and any tips for successful expressing??

in the bath with a massive glass of cold fresh water always did the trick for me!
I could never get on with electric pumps or those hand pumps.

You need to put your thumb at the top of the aerola (I always spell that wrong) and the next finger under your breast. Make a C shape with them.

Press the thumb into your spine then squeeze both fingers together and release. Repeat......

Sorry for the stupidity on my part - but is the water for drinking or cooling?

Am interested to know more about hand expressing too.

do you massage your breast first?

make a fist and go aound your breast with with the area of your fist which is between your nuckles and half your finger (does that make sense?) and go from top to bottom. do it on each side for about 5-10 minutes before you start to express.

mears posted a link on a thread of mine about 2 years ago.......
will searcg

the water is to drink, not a stupid question!
I find when I drink a huge glass of water at the same time the milk flows and flows, same as when feeding. -the bath is to relax.
also for me I find I have to choose my timing carefully. I have to be relaxed and have eaten well. the more stressed I get about not having any milk come out, the less does come out.
also sounds silly, but to 'think milk' really does help!

also have something very big to catch the milk in as mine went everywhere

Yes whats the glass of cold water for?? Sorry!
Also what do u ladies express into?
Do u express straight into a sterilised bottle?
Also how long can u store bm in the fridge for?

sorry keep thinking of when i was hand expressing. i had a picture of the baby i was expressing for (expressed this way with both my dd's at first) and something they'd had in their incubator at the time so maybe something your lo sleeps with that has their unique smell on it.

2 days at the back of the fridge not in the fridge door. Don't forget you can freeze it too.

there's a good sized container from medela i think, never used it myself. it's useful if you plan to hand express for a long time. it's big so it'll catch all your milk and store it in there until you've finished and i think you'd pour it into a sterilised bottle after that. fresh milk in the fridge i'd use within 24 hours myself.

I expressed straight into a sterile bottle. but be carefull because spilling it is really depressing!
have definately heard that looking at your baby, or photo of him will help it flow too.

there is a definate technique to hand expressing, you don't really squeeze, rather massage the boob backwards almost.
I had great advice from a bf advisor once who explained it really well (much better than I could) maybe the advice is on-line somewhere...?

You have 48 hours honey. You need to be sure to store it in the back of the fridge. You can check online here info for you to download

just looked the hand expressing thing from medela it's called a funnel and goes straight into a bottle here

Thats great thank u xxxxxx