How much colostrum do I take to the hospital?

[SUSB2016]

Pregnant with DD2 who is most likely coming early due to my health issues. Last time around I could barely express anything but this time am able to fill 1ml syringes with ease. I know 1ml isn't a lot but certainly more than I managed last time. Just wondering how many syringes I should aim for?

Are you likely to need a C section? If so I’d go at the higher end of recommendations as it can delay your milk coming in.

I had I think 14 for an early baby I knew was likely to go in NICU. I wish I’d gone for 15-20 as the stress really did effect even colostrum supply for me.

What's visiting like on the postnatal ward? I would take 3 or 4, based on the assumption that you may need one every 3 or 4 hours. So that would give your birth partner time to go home, rest and then bring in more at visiting time if you need them. Depends if your hospital ward has capacity to store them. Ours don't, women have to keep them in their own cool bag.

Hi @SUSB2016 I took 22 with me for DC1 3 years ago, whic was a planned caesarean at 37+2 (pprom & breech hence early!). They were a bit surprised as that seemed to be quite a lot more than most women take. We used them all (bad tongue tie).

I have another ELCS this Wednesday ( booked.at 39 from scan date, but actually 38+2) and I have filled 22 and have three more to go. The reassurance that I have these as back up is really reducing my stress levels!

My maternity hospital has a freezer they can be put into when we show up for the ELCS and then fetched as needed.

Thanks all for your responses! Very helpful. Just to be clear...these are only 1ml syringes I'm filling which doesn't sound like a lot? Did you ladies also use 1ml or more?

I'm able to fill about 3 of them in one sitting- is that normal? Sorry for all the questions! Just anxious as BF was a disaster last time so trying to be as prepared as possible.

@SUSB2016 that's good going! For me, it started off quite slowly last time and I was filling up single syringes over several sessions, but by the end I could do one off each side at each go. This time I frustrated myself by expecting it to be as quick from the get go and it's only just getting more like that now. These were 1ml syringes. i've got 3 of those left to fill in the next two days so I am expecting to run out, at which point I will probably try to express into a small bottle (I've got loads left over from last time!).

How long do you have to go until you expect your baby to be born? If you can get the colostrum out easily you may as well express. For me, the fact I knew how to hand express really helped when I had to do it in hospital - that combined with the colostrum syringes really saved us from needing to give any formula. I also didn't really have any delay in my milk coming in despite the caesarean (baby was born late Thursday afternoon and I woke up on the Sunday morning with boulders on my chest)!.

i took 10 and produced another 10 or so on the antenatal ward (all 1ml syringes). Between antenatal and postnatal they somehow got lost and eventually DH was sent to find them…not ideal when I had a newborn and was slightly freaking out!

In all seriousness, I would take as many as you get. Good luck!

Find out if your hospital can store them first. Mine couldn’t so we had to use up the 5 I brought in (in a cool bag) on the first day.

It sounds like you’ll have no problems hand expressing so take empty ones with you to help with feeding the baby. My milk came in Wednesday evening after a Monday morning ELCS and I topped her up with syringes for the first week until feeding was going well.

Yes I’m talking about 1ml syringes.

I’m shocked there are hospitals that can’t store them!

It's because milk can only be stored for so long/limited space in the fridges. Also if it's expressed 1 month prior to use, whoever is checking the milk in the fridge is likely to see the date and chuck it. There's not really time to be going to women to check when it was defrosted. Better the women take responsibility for it!

That’s fixable - as demonstrated by the hospitals that manage it. At mine every woman has stickers with their personal details and you write on the date of expression/defrosted.

Colostrum harvesting seems to be pretty new and I think it’s far more likely lots of hospitals haven’t caught up and are as ever under resourced.

Completely agree @Moancup . All my syringes have the ID stickers on and I'll be putting them in a box that also has an ID label on. They should check that the woman is still on the ward before chucking anything! To be fair, it was mostly my milk in the fridge/freezer on postnatal when I was in last time - hardly anyone else was actually expressing anything!

Hi all
Bit of an update...my colostrum has completely dried up! I cannot squeeze even a single drop out. I've got a bad cold so don't know if it's related but it's sent me into a bit of a panic :/ Can this happen? I'm 37 weeks and as I said was easily able to get 2-3ml at a time from both breasts!

Don't worry @SUSB2016 , you know what you're doing with it already. How much did you collect before the cold started?

I took 10 syringes I think. Ended up that baby wouldn't latch (well he would but he kept falling asleep everytime he latched as exhausted from birth!). He had all 10ml and more! They had me expressing throughout the night. So if you need more, they should supply you with more when you're there.

I managed 7x 1ml syringes so not a huge amount. Just trying to hydrate hydrate hydrate in the hope that I can start hand expressing again!

Yes it can happen. I had it pre birth and post birth and both times it resolved by the next day. Was stress related in my case, but are you taking any cold medication?

@Moancup I'm coming to the end of a course of antibiotics, I've got a couple more days left. Really hoping things go back to normal once I'm done with them! :(

I've had 2 planned c-sections and didn't harvest any colostrum in advance. It was never mentioned to me that I should. My milk came in day 3 with both DC.

Hi, I’m pregnant with my first and am strongly considering an elcs for various reasons. Sorry if the answer is obvious, but did you therefore formula feed for the first couple of days until your milk came in? Did that cause any issues with your babies’ taking to your milk subsequently?

@ViVi1001 your baby has colostrum in the first couple of days when breastfeeding until your milk comes in, no need to supplement with formula if you don't want to

Your baby’s stomach is the size of a cherry when they’re born so they need very little milk - they only need the colostrum that will be there from birth. If you want to “top up” (baby might be sleepy and not keen to feed) you can give them syringes of colostrum that you hand express after birth.

It wont cause any issues once your milk comes in. I had an ELCS a few months ago and my baby has never had formula. My milk came in 2.5 days later and off we went.

Thank you @bogoblin and @Porridgeislife that’s really helpful

This

I had normal birth. Milk came in day 3. It’s a very normal amount of time. Baby just had colostrum from attempting to feed those days. No top up of anything.

Its how babies keep feeding to encourage milk production, so I wouldn’t recommend topping up much with anything.
It’s why most babies to loose up to 10% of birth weight in the first few days, which they should then regain within 2 weeks.

Update- day 3 post antibiotics and still unable to harvest anything :( I've no idea what's happened. I probably wouldn't be so stressed/panicked if I wasn't managing to get anything in the first place, but the sudden drop/disappearance of my colostrum is really stressing me out about getting off to a rubbish start with BFing.