Anyone else with GD been told to manually express before labour?

[nannynome]

Been told that it will help cervix soften and also will help to stabilise baby's levels afterwards being able to have a better supply and frozen for extra if needed. I feel like a milking cow once a day lol. Anyone else doing this and how is it going?

I'm on dc6 - dc spread over 24 years & I've never heard of this!

I found these info sheets:

www.dvh.nhs.uk/EasysiteWeb/getresource.axd?AssetID=165903&type=full&servicetype=Attachment

This is an American link but explains some of the reasoning too: breastfeedingusa.org/content/article/expressing-milk-birth-tool-use-special-circumstances

I have been told to do this a few days before induction but no earlier as it can cause premature labour. It is not essential to do but as I am determined to breast and not formula feed they have recommended that I have some ready even if it is only a vey small amount.

Maybe I've never come across that advice as I've only got to my due date once!

Romily keep an open mind...you never know how things will pan out...

We have been told to do this over the couple of weeks before due date in our antenatal classes.

Update: definitely do this! It was the only thing that stopped our baby having to have formula after he was born and his glucose levels were bad. I am so grateful to the antenatal team for making sure I did this. It helped because he was to tired to suck properly and made sure their was more thane bought to stabilise him.

I have T1 diabetes and wonder if I will be asked to do this before induction also?

I would talk to your antenatal clinic about it. Really made a difference to our getting out of hospital. I really didn't want him to have formula so this made me happy as otherwise he would have had to. The hospital also used tiny baby sippy cups so he lapped the milk rather than bottles so he didn't have any nipple confusion early on.

In my area they have only been running the initiative in the hospital for a year or so and apparently a lot of the mums ignore the information and don't do it.

Hope all goes well.

Ps: here is the other thread with some other people's experiences:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/1950618-GD-newborn-glucose-levels-not-stabilising

im also type 1 and nobody mentioned this to me. i wore my insulin pump during my first labour to make sure my levels were where i wanted them (ie between 4 & 6 not higher like they tend to be on the sliding scale drip) & obviously in the weeks leading up kept things very tight so had no issues with hypoglycaemic baby - second time around il also be going for prevention rather than cure.