Hand expressing colostrum BEFORE baby is born

[Namechangemum100]

I am looking for some success stories from women who have been able to successfully hand express colostrum before the birth of their baby.

I have been advised to do this by my lactation consultant due to breast feeding issues with baby #1, in the hopes it will help with #2 due in a couple of weeks.

If you did do this, how much did you collect, how long did it take before you saw some colostrum, any tips etc

Thank you!

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

I have been leaking so even though I am 35 weeks been collecting a bit anyway. Think I am lucky have had a good 3-5ml straight away. But for some 0.5ml is just as normal x

I did this before ds was born. I would sit down after dinner and collect around 2-4ml a night. It was a saviour for us as I needed surgery straight after giving birth, he was unfortunately ill, and he was born a heatwave. It meant that dh could feed him until I could get back to him and that he was kept hydrated and content until my milk came in.

I did this from about 37 weeks, also advised by a lactation consultant due to concerns about possible supply issues related to a medical condition I have (thyroid).

As it happens, I had no supply issues, but having the expressed colostrum was amazing as ds was taken straight to special care in respiratory distress. It was great to be able to hand over a few 1ml syringes of colostrum and to know he was being fed my colostrum when we had latching issues (tongue tie). It was great that I was already used to hand expressing when I was separated from my baby whilst he got better in special care, and then so that I could top him up with expressed milk in a bottle as he couldn't get it easily from my nipple initially.

I had to massage for quite a while and only tiny bits came out initially - tiny droplets. I expressed into a medicine cup (used a new one each time) and syringed it up. I was a bit silly and syringed straight from the nipple a few times but that led to intense pain and nipple damage, so I'd avoid that! I worked around the breast methodically, thinking of it like a clock.

Good luck and congratulations on your new baby

Have you any colostrum harvesting groups in your area? The midwives run one here where you can get one to one advice and they will help you to express.

I did :-)
Someone else had a similar thread the other day.

I collected a fair amount (30ml) over about a week of expressing with a manual pump. It helped DS who was v lethargic due to infection and didn't have the energy to latch. So we syringed a small amount into his mouth.

I collected it and kept it in Lansinoh milk bag.

I started at 30 weeks with the support of Consultant and managed to get nearly 900ml.
I started with hand expressing 2-3 times a day and managed to get a good few syringes full the first 2 weeks but moved onto a hand pump as it was easier for me to massage breasts (rather large ones) with one hand whilst pumping with the other.

When Baby was delivered he had massive health issues and ended up being NG tube fed for a year, I pumped for nearly 6 months and then used my freezer stash for the next 3 months.
After establishing pumping I was making on average 1.8ltr a day, I am pretty sure the antenatal expressing helped with this.

Top tips I found useful was to start out doing it after a hot shower and massage breasts for 10mins before hand and be relaxed.
Lots of water/fluids per day 3-4ltrs preferably and as much sleep as you can get.

Woohoo I managed to have some success today...sadly not enough to actually collect and only from 1 breast but there was definitely a glissoning and a tiny droplet there...it's only day 1 so I'm hoping that's a good sign!

Well done namechange keep at it. Once you get the knack it's easy. I ended up hand expressing all of ds' feeds until he was 6 months. He couldn't latch and I didn't respond effectively to the pump. I was glad I already had the practice in from collecting the colostrum.

I had terrible problems feeding dc1 - so I expressed colustrum for dc2. Only a drop or two at first but up to about 5ml per boob per session after a few days.

Collected it in a sterilised teaspoon, then sucked it into a sterilised calpol syringe. Labelled with the date and then shoved in the freezer.

I did use it pretty much all up once dc2 arrived. I had the same problems with feeding (tongue tie) but it gave me a bit of breathing room whilst we sorted out the tongue division.

I did the same with dc3.

I really recommend it if you've had feeding issues, it just gives you a bit of a buffer in case you have any problems.