Harvesting colostrum?

[Pineapplebaby]

Over 38 weeks now and haven’t started but is it really necessary?
Do people usually bother or is it only for those who expect to girth birth early?
Thanks

I didn't harvest colustrum with first baby but breastfed as soon as he was born and he was getting colostrum as nappies were wet. Milk didn't come in until day 3 so colostrum is all he had.

I guess you could pump if you wanted to beforehand but then you would be having to bottle feed\syringe.

I'd be interested to know the advantages of harvesting colostrum before birth as currently 30 weeks pregnant with ds2.

I've been encouraged to, but in my case baby will be in hospital for a while so maybe they want it to give him when he's tubed up? Either way you decide, good luck with baba 😊

I never did, and breastfed both babies very successfully.

I never did it in previous pregnancies but I'm doing it this time because I've got gestational diabetes and may need extra to stabalise blood sugars. I also remember my babies having urates and I was encouraged to hand express in the hospital which I didn't enjoy. So getting the supply started now seems like a good idea to me. I'm having my baby by section in 10 days.

I'm going to be bottle feeding, so I'm going to give it a whirl, just so baby gets the good stuff straight away.
I did watch a You Tube video on how to do it (FTM and no idea!) and oh my days! 🙈
All you saw was this woman's breasts in a top and then she flopped her GIANT boob out right in front of the camera and demonstrated what to do! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry' It was traumatising! 😂😂😂😂

I didn't have the opportunity with DS as he was premature. Planning to this time round, in case baby is small or has problems latching etc

I wish I did it 1st time round. Breastfeeding didn’t really work for me in the 1st 6 days, my son became dehydrated and we were readmitted to hospital. From then on it was breast.. expressed breast milk and formula. It was exhausting!
He ended up being combi fed after that. Which worked really well. But I feel like if I had a store of colostrum it would have helped prevent dehydration. Milk can take a while to come in if you have a PPH and various other reasons.
Good luck whatever you decide xx

I only harvested colostrum for this baby which is number 4.
I successfully breastfeed all the others.

The reason for harvesting this time was because I had gestational diabetes and it's good if you have some for baby in case he's having low blood sugars.
Only managed to express about 2,5 ml, which were great as I was hemorrhaging after birth and midwife could feed baby while I was worked on.
Successfully breastfeed a 3 weeks old now.

@R2D2abc have you had your baby?

Whoops just seen your baby is 3 weeks old!! Wow congratulations

You don't need to do it unless you know baby will be early for some reason. Even then it's just nice to have, not a necessity.

I’m going to give it a go. My son struggled to latch for a number of reasons including tongue tie. We ended up giving some formula in the hospital although we were able to get breastfeeding going in the end. I’d like to have some stored as an insurance policy in case we have similar issues again.

Same as above - I am going to have a go this time. Had to be separated from dd for a good 5+ hours after giving birth to her so couldn’t try breastfeeding her, and she was then furious so wouldn’t latch, ended up giving formula and never really cracked breastfeeding (combi fed up to 3 months) . So this time I would like to have it as back up. If I’d had some syringes of colostrum with dd things might have been different

I did it for DC2 as I saw the main benefit is sating the newborn whilst waiting for the milk to come in. I had planned cesarians both times and in the end my milk came in quicker second time round (day 2 vs day 4/5 for DC1). I wondered if this was because I'd been harvesting colostrum twice a day for one week prior to the csection (from 38 weeks. ELCS was 39+0).

I did it and wish I'd done more. DD had massive issues latching so had to be syringe and cup feed for the first few weeks. It would have taken the pressure off a little in that first week to have some more in the freezer!

The midwives in the hospital were delighted I'd been doing it though as they said I responded really well to expressing and had a lot of colostrum, and they wished more people did it. So there's definitely nothing to lose and potentially a lot of gain!

I am currently 38 weeks and have been hand expressing for a couple of weeks now and have a pretty good stash now. I obviously don’t know how helpful it will be after birth but I figure it will take the pressure off afterwards.
A couple of tips if you do decide to try it -

• Don’t feel disheartened if nothing comes out the first few tries. Try to think of the first couple of goes as getting the hang of the massaging and the technique for collecting.
• I found it easier to express into a very small sterile container first. I would then fill the syringe from that.
• I put a heat pad on my boobs before doing a massage to warm them up. After bath or shower also helps.

Hope that helps and good luck!

Thank you everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it.
So this evening I sterilised a small pot and gave it a go after a bath and managed to get a fair bit already! Will definitely keep going and will hopefully get a good little stash before he gets here 😊

I didn't but definitely would if I am lucky enough to have another baby.

Milk didn't come in until 3 weeks after EMCS by which point baby was obsessed with formula. Had I been given the information on harvesting that could have been avoided