Preparing for breastfeeding

[Demigibbo]

Hello everyone!

My little one is due very soon and I’m wanting to breastfeed but pump. Of course I will also speak to my midwife/dr but being a new mum (to be) how do fellow pumping mums store their breast milk? If in the fridge, how long for and how do you warm it up? So confusing loll. Sorry I’m a control freak so just trying to be prepared 😃 as much detail as possible pleaseeeee xx

Have a look at Le leche league website or association of breastfeeding mothers. Both have good information for pumping.
I also joined my local Le leche Facebook group.
I never bothered pumping so no advice there, I found feeding directly the easiest option so stuck with that!

The NHS website is a good source of info. Just checked and they recommend breast milk can be stored up to 8 days in the fridge and 6 months in the freezer. Warm up by putting bottle in a jug of hot water much like you would with formula.

You don't say why you want to exclusively pump and that's obviously your choice but my experience was that pumping was hard work, time consuming and created lots of work washing the pump and bottles etc whereas breastfeeding directly avoids that. But I'm sure you have your own reasons so not trying to change your mind if it's important to you but just something to consider and factor in.

I believe it can be stored in the fridge for a few days (am sure you can find out on the NHS website somewhere) but I only ever kept enough in the fridge for the next day. Anything in excess of that I would just store in the freezer. To warm it up just put it in a bowl of warm water. But just see how you go because although I found it easy to breastfeed, I could never get that much from pumping and it would take much longer too, so I mostly just breastfed.

Thank you everyone

Tbh, I would probably prefer to directly breastfeed too, but I feel like I want to see how much they’re drinking which is why I thought of pumping. I suppose I’ll see what ends up working best 😁

Yes it can be worrying to know if they are getting enough milk. But the absolute best way to know is if they have regular wet and dirty nappies and if they put on weight.

Good luck and make sure to ask your midwife and the hospital for help and support with feeding. There's also lots of local groups available.

Read up about newborn behavior, go to mother and baby breast feeding groups now you're pregnant. Speak to bf counsellors in these places and build your support now. This way if you run into any difficulties, help is only a phone call away. Congratulations

5 months today of exclusively breastfeeding and I had planned to pump but find it takes up a lot of time. I do have a 4yo as well. Early weeks they feed a lot so just be prepped for the possibility of that. Good luck with your new little bundle x

If you’ve got a good latch with no pain, baby is visibly swallowing, and has some settled spells, with good nappy output 2 poos a day and plenty of wet - you are fine, no need to monitor input. The midwives will check all this - or they should! Nappy output will be monitored to make sure they are feeding ok.
know where to find an IBCLC incase you need support and the NHS aren’t providing it - unfortunately breastfeeding support is under staffed, underpaid, and can be lacking! Even paediatricians can have very poor breastfeeding knowledge!

The best advice I ever had was don’t overthink it. You either can or you can’t and that’s that. It takes two to tango.

I watched a really good video about latching prior and that was the only preparation. Nose to nipple basically sums it up.

And some can’t pump. I couldn’t get hardly any milk. And of the stuff I did it doesn’t freeze correctly. This is all fine and not indicative of supply. Just consider it all a dark art and trust in the process.

Remember what you pump vs what a baby will take directly can be completely different. Generally a baby will feed much more efficiently than a pump - some women can hardly pump a drop but very happily feed thriving babies directly.

Pumping to feed is the worst of both worlds - you lose so much time pumping and have all the sterilising / equipment to worry about.

Please preserver with direct feeing if that's what you want though.

Read "the womanly art of breastfeeding" - wish I'd read it before having my 2.

Recipe for disaster. Sorry. Let them feed on demand, as often as they cry put them tithe breast. This is how you will build up your supply. This is how yoh will successfully establish breastfeeding. Its a supply and demand thing. If you want to breastfeed you need to let go of the idea of how much they will get and just allow them to feed as and when. Pumping is hard and you might get like you don't get much out without a pump (there's definitely a nack to it) meaning you're then more included to formula feed leaking supply will be lower (as its a supply and demand thing) so it's a vicious circle. If you want to BF then BF and if you want to know exactly how much they are getting then bottle feed

B*might not get much ouy

Sorry for typos!!

Thank you everyone for the advice. I’ll definitely give it a try 😄

Also to add that breastmilk's composition changes throughout the day. At night your milk includes hormones to get your baby back to sleep and for you too. It would be advisable to time stamp your milk and pump and night too. Which adds another job to your expanding list. I would really recommend breast feeding straight from source.

Line up your support and surround yourself with pro-breastfeeding good evidence based info sources. BF facebook groups (though be careful as some parenting type FB groups can be a bit extreme), following BF experts on social media - I like Lucy Ruddle for example. Read some books if you like books, I like Lucy Ruddle and Amy Brown's books on BF. Or I expect there are good podcasts if you prefer audio.

In terms of being able to see what they are drinking this is less important than you might think - it can help to look up what are signs of the baby getting enough instead and try to relax about amounts. If the baby is getting enough wet and dirty nappies this is usually the most reliable indicator. Remember that with BF if they are hungry they can always have more and they will generally let you know!

Thank you, people :)

I had to pump and bottle feed one of mine who physically couldn’t breastfeed. It was seriously the most miserable thing ever, the actual bottle feeding was no issue whatsoever but the pumping was soul destroying. It all took so much longer as well - pumping, plus bottle feeding, plus cleaning/sterilising all the stuff. I estimate it took a third of the time to feed my others that breastfed directly. Decades later I still look back on it with complete loathing.

If you're ok Facebook, there's a great group called Exclusively Pumping UK Mums. Really helpful stuff.

I will say though, pumping is a lot of hard work and often underestimated I think. I did it for 6 months, after DS spent 2 months in NICU and I just carried on when he was home. It's incredibly tying I found, given you have to pump around 8 times per day and can't slack off on that or your supply will go. So obviously needing to pump every 2-3 hours day (and at least once overnight) I found limiting when I wanted to go out etc having to think about pumping and storing milk if out and about. Alongside the constant cycle of washing pump and bottles, it's a LOT of work and I'd never willingly put myself through that again! Just food for thought for you. Good luck x

Should say if you're on* Facebook!

Agree with pps about pumping being worst of both worlds! I found it exceptionally annoying and swiftly started to resent having spent however much money on an electric pump. You can't sell or pass them on to anyone else either, so the stupid thing sat around unused for years afterwards. I didn't pump a single time with DC2.

It does feel daunting at first when you can't see what your baby is consuming, but the wet and dirty nappies and growing baby really is the best indication, and you do get used to it.

I breastfeed my 10 week old but express once a day to allow dad to give her a bottle in an evening. It's worked well for us! I use the pippetta pump as it's hands free so it goes in my bra which is great! I agree with what others have said - exclusively pumping is hard work. You would need to pump every 2 hours day and night initially and then feed baby and sterilise etc. might be worth doing abit of both x

Be aware that not everyone can pump - I've ebf 3dc and can only get about 1oz pumping. They've all had good weight gain so either I produce gold-top or they were getting a lot more than I could pump.

Ebf babies tend to lose weight (up to 20% is normal) the first 5-7 days and recover by day 14. Your milk won't "come in" till day 3-5 and might be later if you have a traumatic birth. And you'll both have to learn to bf.

You will need to do all the skin to skin closeness during that time to get a good supply up for pumping - I highly recommend either a skin to skin top or being topless with the baby skin to skin to the first few days to help. And when your milk comes in gently massaging your breasts in the shower will help relieve some of the initial pressure until it settles down.