Hakka and Colostrum Harvesting

[KittyKat2020]

My Hakka came today and I’ve done a bit of research. A lot of the research says it’s a really good instrument to use for colostrum harvesting. I know you can’t use an electric pump as it gets lost in the mechanism but the Hakka been used for it sounds good. Anyone has experience of using the Hakka for harvesting before baby is here?

I tried from 37 weeks both with yhe Hakka and hand expressing, couldn’t get anything out at all. I was so annoyed! Once baby arrived went straight on the breast ans was fine even though I had a emergency C section.
Once home i’m kinda glad we had no colostrum stored as I was so sore and knacered we wouldn’t have bothered using it anyway 🤣 Don’t worry if you try and don’t get a lot/any.

I’d probably suggest you hand express and collect in a syringe. It will be tiny amounts (if anything) x

@LBB2020 I’m definitely going to collect with a syringe but it’s easier to express into something sterile and then use a syringe on it. So I was going to use the Hakka to collect and a syringe to store it in

I don’t have any specific advice about collecting colostrum, but when using the haakaa you can get a really good suction by turning the flange part inside out first and then squeeze the base, put onto breast and flip the flange back the right way. Hope that makes sense, don’t think they tell you to do this and in the instructions, but it works much better for breast milk. Good luck!

My experience is that the amount of colostrum you'll get is so tiny that it'll be impossible to suck up from the hakka. Just suck it straight from the tip of your nipple into the colostrum syringe.

I had to collect colostrum when DC1 was born a little early. The midwives in the hospital showed me how to hand express and collect in the syringe. It really is tiny drops so I’d imagine it would be hard to collect it in any kind of pump to be honest. But that’s just my experience x

Thanks for all the advice. I’ll try and express by hand first although it’s does sound really difficult to do!

It's tricky at first but hand expressing is a great skill to have. Even if you don't get why colostrum before the baby comes it's great practice (some women dont and it's no indication of postnatal ability to bf, so don't panic if none comes...it can be related to sensitivity to progesterone etc or just individual differences) and will help when you're establishing feeding as you can bring the milk to the front of the nipple and get baby interested.