When did your colostrum come in?

[newmum0720]

I'm 34+3 and have not had any colostrum come in, my midwife said I should be harvesting it at 35-36 weeks but I'm seeing no sign of it.

I didn’t see any signs of it until I was “kindly helped” by a midwife after the birth. Not quite sure why but she milked me and collected it in a syringe and fed it to the baby whilst in hospital. Mine was born at 38+2

About three days after giving birth. What use would it be before there’s a baby to drink it?

On the day DS was born - 38 weeks - it didn’t just appear, I had to hand express it. If I’d done that a few days before it might have been there already, who knows? Have you been shown how to hand express and collect it?

I don't know? I was just told by my midwife that she would give me syringes and I should harvest it for baby at 35-36 weeks. She seemed to think I would produce it before birth.

you can leak colostrum during pregnancy. Some women do, some don't

@Pinkblueberry no I think my midwife will likely show me at my next appointment.

I’ve had colostrum since 28 weeks, but it’s hugely variable from woman to woman (and pregnancy to pregnancy). You may not produce any until the baby gets here. Whether or not you produce any before birth does not have any correlation with how successfully you’ll be able to breast feed, so don’t worry if you don’t produce any, but you can google videos to show you hand expressing techniques if you want to try.

Any particular reason you've been asked to do it?

I never did it in my 2 pregnancies. Don't think its advised before 36 weeks

Also just to add, I’m not planning on actually harvesting my colostrum - I don’t see the point unless you expect to be separated from the baby after birth and so unable to breast feed directly or that they’ll have trouble feeding?

With DC1, after the birth. With DC2, maybe a week or two before? Both pregnancies went to almost 42 weeks.

She milked me This made me

@dementedpixie I don't think so. On my last appointment my midwife asked if I'll be breast feeding which I said I hope to, yes and she just said that I should do this and that she would give me syringes at my next appointment.

When baby was born, nothing before. Harvesting is unnecessary.

abm.me.uk/breastfeeding-information/antenatal-expression-colostrum/

Second pixie's question. Do you have GD or are booked for an early c-section?

Colostrum is being produced before the birth, but it generally doesn't leak (I leaked one drop on a t-shirt with DS1 at about 24 weeks pregnant, nothing with DS2), it's not really something which "comes in" as such, it's just what your boobs will produce in response to being milked - whether that's by a newborn baby or the hand expression technique or a pump. The bit about milk coming in is when it changes from colostrum to mature milk, which is hormone driven and tends to make you overproduce massively until your body figures out how much you need (how many babies you have, etc).

I'm not sure its necessary tbh. Don't put too much pressure on yourself

I practised hand expressing from 38 weeks because a lot of friend's babies had issues with latching and I wanted some colostrum ready to use, just in case. I'm so glad I did.

It took so much stress out of dd's first 24 hours. There were babies and mums crying on our ward because their breastfeeding wasn't going to plan. Dd slept loads after her first feed (which we calculated was loads more than usual because I'd been expressing so was making more) and when she did wake up hungry I could either squirt the expressed colostrum in to her mouth from the syringes, or hand express in to her mouth, if she couldn't latch.

@BertieBotts my GD test came back negative but she said it was on the higher end of normal. No c-section booked.

It’s not advised to do it until 36 weeks. Some women have luck and some don’t so it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to feed if nothing comes out. It’s not really that necessary to do it to be honest and could possibly cause more stress than do any good!

It can be useful if you and baby are separated for any reason after birth, e.g. if you have to go to theatre to have your placenta removed or perineum repaired - both not too likely but not unheard of either. It's also useful if baby doesn't latch straight away - you have some colostrum to give them if you don't want them to have formula. It can help build your supply if you have any to collect, but don't worry if you don't get any out, not everyone does but just the stimulation of the breasts can be good. There is also some thought that it can help encourage spontaneous labour if done enough. Of course you don't have to do it at all - I think most women don't do it and still go into labour and manage to breast feed perfectly fine!

I've been advised to try as baby will be poorly shortly after birth, but I've been trying for a week (am at 38wks now) and nothing is really happening, I've gone from nothing to two drops per boob. 🙄

I started harvesting colostrum at 36 weeks due to medication I'm on and as was initially booked for an ELCS but then that was cancelled last week when baby decided she didn't want to be breech after all!
When I started trying to express, I looked at some YouTube videos and my midwife talked me through how to do it.
Recommended 2-3 times a day, with five minutes on each breast and alternate (so you milk them twice each time you do it)
I was recommended to do something relaxing before like hot shower or bath/ massage etc but I find I don't need to do that now. I used microwave breast pad warmer things which are really good.
It took me 3-4 days to get any drops at all, then another 3-4 days to fill a miniature 1ml syringe and now I can get ~5mls quite easily. I'm nearly 39 weeks now. I don't leak unless I squeeze.

Two drops is really good! I was separated from DS2 for about 24 hours and all I was given was a hospital grade pump which was an exercise in utter frustration and misery as the tiny drops you do extract get completely stuck inside the bloody pump/filter mechanism and you can't get them out again! I wish somebody had helped me to hand express but I was more focused on when I was going to get transferred to the hospital DS2 had been taken to.

I will definitely be trying to harvest from 36 weeks. I didn’t do it first time around and had never heard of it. My son lost a lot of weight, and it was a really stressful time. I don’t want that to happen again! Cx

I was quite leaky first time round. Didn't "harvest" it - it never occurred to me. But I had to make sure I had a nice thick bra on at all times and wore breast pads towards the end as I was mortified on the bus when someone else's baby cried and I had to put my jacket on (on a horrifically hot August day on a crowded bus) because I was suddenly leaking..... Mostly it happened at night, especially if I was dreaming about DD (which happened a lot in the final month). Had to lock my cat out of the bedroom because he was curious about the smell

I hope that I'll be lucky enough to have a good supply this time as I'd like to harvest some if I can (identical twins, sharing an anterior placenta, so they're going to have to come our really quite early and might need a significant hospital stay). Not a clue how you get it into the syringe through, I'm hoping someone will tell me before it's time!

If you're having difficulty expressing, can I suggest any of the following:

• being nice and warm (I used to get let down in the bath, but this was post-birth)
• looking at pictures/videos of babies (thinking of what happened to me on the bus, and when pumping for DD later I used to look at a picture of her and that triggered let down), and picturing feeding a baby if you can. It really helps - remember this stuff is triggered by hormones!

I think it's pretty normal to produce very small amounts. Tiny babies only need a few ml at a time, so I imagine that's what you'd expect to get from expressing at a maximum.