Expressing - When should I start?

[laura1306]

New to expressing but 30 weeks and my milk has already come in. I have read articles saying don't express too soon as it may be linked to early labour but hoping to get some practice in the next few weeks and get some stored ready. What's the best way to store and how and can anybody give me some general tips or personal experience?

Your milk can’t come in til baby is born, do you mean colostrum? I personally wouldn’t start until 37 weeks, and then you’ll generally only get a few syringes worth. Unless baby is expected to be prem there really isn’t any need to start expressing now.

Yes sorry I mean colostrum and the consultants are wanting to have me induced at 36 weeks for obstetric cholestasis. I don't want to start expressing now but I do want to try before induction just to practice and encourage my milk and just incase I'm not producing enough in time for when he's here! I'm just unsure on where to start and even about storing what I've got. Can the baby have colostrum or should I only give him what I produce when it's milk?

I wouldn't start before 35 weeks, I would normally say 36 but if you are already being induced at 36 weeks then a week earlier is fine.

I don't think it's a bad idea for any woman who was keen to bf to colostrum harvest antenatally.

Ask your mw about it when you next see them. They may be able to give you some feeding syringes too which you can hand express and store the colostrum into.

I started leaking colostrum at 18 weeks.

I'm 37+2 and started collecting it 4 days ago.

The general rule is you don't start until around 37 weeks as it can trigger labour x

Just seen that you're getting induced. I'd start at 35 weeks in that case but speak to your mw before doing anything xx

I'd say 35 weeks too. Buy some sterile 1ml or 2.5ml syringes, I got some on Amazon, then collect in those and put them straight in the freezer. I ended up with 50 X 1ml and 20 X 2.5ml before labour started. I used quite a few in the first couple of days to keep the baby happy before my milk came in as he spent a lot of time frustrated and sucking away. You just pop them in a mug of warm water to heat them up then squeeze them straight into the baby's mouth. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of them!

www.laleche.org.uk/antenatal-expression-of-colostrum/

Main thing is to have a cold bag with ice block in and label it really well! Tell birth partner that you want to use expressed colostrum rather than formula. Put a note in your birth plan so the MW will know too. Worst thing would be to collect all the wonderful colostrum and then forget to use it!

I started around 34 weeks. I did some reading around it, and came to the conclusion that if it was that easy to stimulate labour then nobody would ever go past their due date! I just did 5 minutes once a day or sometimes less often than that. The first week, I wasn’t getting enough to bother saving (0.4 ml max) but as time went on I gradually started getting closer to 1ml and then eventually 2-4 ml at a time. I saved the larger amounts in sterile syringes and froze them.

After my c section, my husband had to make a mad dash home to get a couple of them, as my baby was born with blood sugar issues and wouldn’t latch, and the hospital were pushing to give him formula.

I gradually used the rest of the syringes over the next few days as we struggled with latching and my milk coming in. I used 5ml at a time, just a couple of times a day at first and then a few times a day by day 4.

I was SO glad I’d done it - i would absolutely not be breastfeeding without it as I would have been forced to go onto formula. It bought me enough time to fix all our issues.

The advice is to not start until 37 weeks. You can find some good resources online about how to hand express. It does take a bit of practice, but it's a really useful thing to know how to do and already be confident doing before your baby arrives. With my first, she had a lot of trouble latching and I did a lot of hand expressing in the first week and I had no idea what I was doing and probably wasn't very good at it. This time I started to collect colostrum from 37 weeks and I feel much for confident doing it if I have to do it again.

I personally do it usually once a day (sometimes twice) after I get out of the shower. I sit in the warm, moist bathroom, which helps get the milk flowing. I express into 5 ml test tubes (bought from Amazon) that I've washed and sterilised. Lots of people express into a spoon and then suck up with a syringe, but I couldn't find that many 1 or 2ml syringes with lids. Also, expressing into a spoon sounds hard! It's much easier in a test tube as I can set it down (I put it in an egg cup) or easily switch hands without spilling any. I freeze it in the test tubes after 48 hours max in the fridge. Then will thaw and feed with a 1ml syringe (you can usually request one at any pharmacy and they're usually free).

If you know you'll be induced, there's no harm in starting a little early, but I wouldn't start more than a week before your induction date. It's obviously not put me into labour. But you should be able to get quite a bit in a week, more if you do it multiple times a day. Don't be discouraged to start though. You'll likely only get a few drops the first time, but within a few days I started to get a ml or 2 at a time.