Green/brown colostrum?

[ChortleFace88]

I’m 27 weeks pregnant and for the last week or so I’ve been able to squeeze small drops of fluid out of my nipples. At first it was white and definitely milky.

In the last few days it’s turned a brown/green colour and is very sticky and tacky to the touch. Is this normal? Worried I might have some sort of infection. I’m not in any pain at all with it.

Hmm, sounds unusual, I'd give midwife a ring to run it past her. Colostrum tends to be clear/ yellowish clear in my experience. Good you're not pain though.

Thanks, I will see how it goes over the weekend and give triage a ring on Monday if it’s still happening. The sticky feeling is definitely reminding me of puss this is my first baby so I have no idea what is normal!

Och that's not good. Does it smell at all? I know it's possible to get blocked ducts/ mastitis in pregnancy but I imagine you'd have pain or discomfort. You could try massage in a warm bath to express out if there is any blockage, but yeah forgetting it's Friday.

If anything green escapes your body, it’s always an infection wherever it is leaking from.

Definitely get this checked out.

Sounds infection BUT please don’t squeeze anything from your boobs it can induce labour.

Lucylou shit I didn’t know that

I wouldn't be worried tbh. Sticky/tacky is normal. I had brown colostrum when I was hand expressing late in my pregnancy with DC2 - it's "rusty pipe syndrome", slight harmless traces of blood from the ducts. A green tint can also be normal and I really doubt it is pus unless you are also seeing fresh blood, swelling, redness or you have a temperature.

You are also extremely unlikely to trigger labour through hand expression unless you've already been told you're high risk for premature labour, but there's certainly no need to squeeze it out. Just let your breasts be until 37 weeks or so.

To give you further reassurance: plenty of pregnant women continue to have their nipples regularly stimulated during sex without triggering labour. There is a weak link between a lot of nipple stimulation and labour starting for full-term pregnant women, but the chances of you inducing yourself through the occasional squeeze are basically non-existent.

And plenty of pregnant women also breastfeed right up until they give birth, which is a lot more nipple stimulation than you've been doing.

Thanks queen, that’s a relief!

I’ll just leave them well alone and see how I feel on Monday. If they become sore, inflamed or leak of their own accord, I’ll 100% phone the doctor.

Sounds like you need seeing but don't be trying to squeeze any the colostrum is like liquid gold you need to save that for baby

You can't run out of colostrum. Your body will continue to produce it until birth when hormones then kick in to replace it with milk.

You can't run out of colostrum

^this. Your body simply makes more. Again, many people are feeding older babies or toddlers on that colostrum right up to full term.

It's always good to chat through with your midwife, but nothing you've said worries me OP. Colostrum IS sticky/tacky because of its high sugar content (and pus isn't), green and brown are both normal colours for it to be, you won't do any harm squeezing but you might make your nipples sore so might as well leave be for now. You can express and freeze colostrum from 37 weeks or so if you want to have a little stash for when baby is born but that's usually only necessary in the case of Gestational Diabetes or similar.

You might spontaneously leak before the end of your pregnancy as well - that's nothing to worry about and doesn't mean anything except that, well, the colostrum is in there.