Colostrum harvesting- worth it?

[Pink Pamplemousse]

I'm 38 weeks and began harvesting colostrum in the last few days. First attempt managed to get about 0.8ml, second attempt got about 0.2ml in over an hour! My boobs have been really sore since,

Just wondering for those who harvested colostrum, was it worth it?

I breastfed my first before mixed feeding and eventually formula feeding. I'm very laid back this time and not particularly tied to either breastfeeding or formula, just going to see how it goes.

That’s completely fair. Just to say that I struggled with harvesting and really worried that I would have problems breastfeeding but there is absolutely no correlation at all. Enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy and don’t worry about feeding for now.

Definitely worth trying but no stress if you can't actually collect any. I kept trying up until the point I went into labour, would have loved to have a couple of syringes on standby for day 1.

Yes I did it.

It took a few days before I was filling whole syringes. I froze them and took them into the hospital with me. The midwives were surprised (in a good way) when I gave them the syringes to store in their fridge. When I told them that some of the syringes had a pathetic amount in they shot me down and told me even the tiniest blobs of colostrum can make a difference to the baby as they only need small amounts. So I was quite chuffed and in those first few days my baby did use the colostrum. My NCT teacher suggested we collect it and apart from the first few days of trying being difficult it wasn't too difficult

could you just not breastfeed the colostrum to your baby then? What exactly is the benefit of giving them colostrum with a syringe? Mine just had it via breastfeeding

Some people find it hard to feed at first or some have circumstances where they can’t be with their baby straight after birth due to needing surgery or baby being in the NICU. In these cases and there’s probably a load more it’s comforting to have the colostrum harvested and ready to give to the baby.

I harvested colostrum at 38 weeks. I forgot to take it with me to the hospital. My baby is 10 months now and it is still in the freezer 🤷🏻‍♀️

You do it as an insurance, in case you can’t feed your baby straight away. In an ideal world you wouldn’t use it in hospital. I didn’t use mine but it was still useful to have when my baby was older and ill, it was a fantastic antibody boost and worked wonders for things like colds, conjunctivitis and eczema. I’m glad I had it and will try to get some again but it’s not essential.

BF was important to me and it made me feel
better to know that my baby wouldn’t need to be given formula if we had to be separated.

Exactly

I was unexpectedly separated after birth for complex repair surgery that took a long time under GA - I was so glad he could have colostrum and not formula in that time. So for me, yes worth it, but it was flowing pretty well and not too much hassle to collect. Other advantages were that the volume increased over the 2 weeks I was collecting so I think it meant supply was good once he arrived (he was up 7oz at 5 days) and knowing the technique was handy if he'd had latching issues

Absolutely yes! I had an unexpectedly traumatic birth and couldn't feed for quite a while (I was unconscious). Luckily I'd harvested so much colostrum that my baby still got some great nutrition - antibodies, microbes (and of course, very important calories!)

Oh and I barely got anything out in the first couple of weeks. It was literally a few days before labour that I was suddenly able to produce a bit more. But even a few mls is gold-dust relative to a teeny tiny newborn :)