Collecting colostrum - how much?

[showmorekindness]

I'm 38 weeks pregnant and have started collecting colostrum. I can't find much information about how much colostrum to collect.

Assuming I have a straightforward birth, baby is born without any health problems and breastfeeding goes to plan, how much colostrum is baby likely to be given in syringes before moving on to regular breastfeeding? Or do you do a combination of colostrum syringes and breastfeeding for a while? If so, how long?

I'm finding it fairly easy to collect 2-3ml each time I try but it's not exactly fun so I don't want to collect too much if it's going to go to waste.

TIA x

I found it really useful! I expressed 7 x 1mls (but still have one in the freezer - my DS is now 10 weeks old!) DS wanted to feed continually the night I was in hospital after my ELCS - I was knackered the next morning so DH gave the colostrum when he came back to the hospital. It meant I could have a sleep but didn't have to resort to formula. We did this a few times over the first few days and it was nice to have a little break!

Breastfeeding is still going well so hasn't affected the latch or my milk coming in.

Good luck!

Hi, I have just started to collect colostrum. Not for any reason other than I have it if I need it, might as well if my body is producing it x

@BertieBotts

8dp dates are meant to be the best thing for your cervix!

Ooh.... I don't know if I like dates! Will definitely give them a fair trial anyway 😂

@Twizbe

This is quite a new thing. It was mentioned a bit when I have my second in 2019.

Basically, the sooner you can put baby to breast after birth the better.

If you can't, a few syringes are good, but you don't need to go crazy.

This is good advice.

I wish I’d collected it as I couldn’t breastfeed without a lot of pain and the baby couldn’t latch easily. A few ml of colostrum a day would have been so great for peace of mind, where instead I struggled and just endured the pain and frustration.

Friends who have straightforwardly breastfed have had no need of syringed colostrum at all, on the other hand.

Unless it’s uncomfortable or painful, I think it’s a great idea to have syringes - enough to get you through the first 3-7 days until milk comes in.

As a midwife... it makes my job a lot eaiser when a breastfeeding mum is super knackered because her baby has been feeding non stop all night and she has some syringes in our freezer that i can feed to baby to settle rather than giving some formula.

As a pregnant mum to my third baby (and second DD fed from midnight till 5am first night 🥴) i have collected 20mls so far to take to hospital so my friends can look after DS for a few hours and i can sleep ;)

Unless your baby (or you) are poorly after the birth and can't feed, you should feed them colostrum direct from the breast. Colostrum contains important antibodies based on your current environment. Therefore the stuff in your freezer from a few weeks ago is 'out of date' if you've been exposed to a virus or something more recently before the birth that you now have made antibodies for that you wouldn't have done when you harvested the frozen colostrum. It's better than nothing of course but it should be a 'just in case' option.

I collected 10ml for each of my DC despite low risk pregnancies.
Did it both times just in case there ended up being a random medical reason I couldn’t feed them.
DC1 - I had to have surgery after so DH used them for first feed then DC2 had to go to NICU and we were separated for a few hours, so again the colostrum was used then. Really really glad I did! You won’t need loads, just the first feed or two.