Expressing and donating

[Swaliswan]

I had DD 5 weeks early and had to express from the beginning as she was tube fed for a few days. I got into the habit of expressing so I continued to do so and ended up donating litres of EBM to the milk bank. I was very grateful of the EBM from the milk bank that DD had when she was first born so it seemed only right to top up their supplies!

Anyway, DC2 is due in six weeks time and I'm hoping that I won't have another premmie. Assuming that I don't, how soon is it OK to start expressing? I'm not sure if DC2 will get any EBM in a bottle but I would like to donate again so getting into a regular routine from the beginning seems like a good idea. I also like the idea of having some 'just in case' EBM in the freezer.

TIA

Well I've been told not to express until bf is "well established" whatever that means!

With both of my dc, I started at about 4 weeks and didn't have any problems.

Hopefully somebdy more knowledgeable can help you more.

I really wanted to donate my milk but I live too far away from any of the banks

Most of the banks will travel a fair distance to come and pick up EBM if you're still interested in donating.

I've heard to not express until BFing is well established but it seems silly to me if you are going to build expressing into a routine to wait for so long. I wouldn't want to be expressing all the time as I am concerned that it may have led to some over-supply issues that I had when BFing DD. But, I wondered if expressing after a morning feed everyday, for example, would mean that I don't muck up my supply by trying to introduce expressing later on?

I've been in contact with (off the top of my head now!) UKAmb who run the banks and there's not one that will collect my milk. I was gutted with ds1 as I had a plentiful supply, so tried again when I had ds2 and still no joy.

I can see what you're saying about expressing and it sems sensible to me. Give it a go - it'll only give you more milk not less so that can't be a bad thing surely?

Bump for the evening crowd.

The UKAMB website is www.ukamb.org It has recently been revamped and you might find some useful info there.

Thanks. It doesn't say a lot about when to start expressing and I think that all of the other info is the same as when I had DD. It is good to see that the website has been updated though and I'm about to e-mail the nurse who runs our local milk bank.

I started after one week (earlier than recommended) and it was all fine.