Colostrum Harvesting

[DefiantRabbit9]

Did anyone else have trouble harvesting colostrum at 36 weeks pregnant?

I've just started and I'm struggling to get a drop. Any tips to help get it going?

Warm bath!

It was winter but I sat on the sofa under a warm blanket drinking decaf coffee and eating something sweet, basically being as cosy and comfortable and relaxed as possible. There was a video by some excellent midwives which had advice I used.

It’s certainly not essential but I knew with my second I was having a complicated c section which might affect when my milk came in and I might be away from the baby so I wanted DH to have something to give the baby.

I know it’s not the same, but I expressed for both my premature babies.

To start with, it took me about an hour to fill a 1ml syringe through hand-expressing. It was absolutely painstaking.

By doing this every 3-4 hrs night & day, I managed to build up to about 20mls over a few days & then moved onto an electric pump.

Good Luck!

It’s just yet another way to make new mothers feel guilty.

Got loads very easily with my first, struggled with my second. Please don't get too hung up about it it's not essential!!

I didn't do it for either pregnancy and IEBF both times for as long as I wanted. Don't stress about it.

Why do you say this? No one’s forcing you to harvest colostrum and no one makes you feel guilty if you don’t do it. My midwives were equivocal about it. It was v useful to have the colostrum for my second and everyone seemed very surprised that I’d bothered to collect.

It's so unnecessary. I also failed to get a drop during pregnancy and still breastfed for a total of over 5 years. I remember I actually hurt my nipple trying because my NCT lesson (ugh) suggested it.

And yes, I had a car crash EMCS birth with my first dc and a brief NICU stay for my second. A bit of formula initially will do no harm to your "breastfeeding journey" if you can't be there to give the first feed, so there's no need for frozen colostrum.

Totally this. It wasn't a thing when I had my babies. There's no need to do it, or to fret if you can't manage it.

I managed to breastfeed just fine but couldn't hand express anything at all. I doubt I'd have been able to express colostrum either. It would've been just another thing for me to worry about, and I worried about everything!

This!

I am happy it wasn't a thing with my 3 children.

The best way is to wait til the placenta has been delivered as that will trigger the hormones that produce the milk.

Prior to that have go but done hope for much.

I spent almost 10 years breastfeeding and made dto express around maybe 200 mls the whole time. My body just doesn't do expressing. It does however produce masses of milk once there is a baby there.

My body just doesn't do expressing. It does however produce masses of milk once there is a baby there.

Same. And this is biologically understandable I think. Your body doesn't want to waste milk on a machine so it tenses up and stops the milk coming out, at least that's what it used to feel like for me

I found the Mandela hand pump useful!

Thanks ladies! It's good to know that just because you can't express it doesn't necessarily mean you won't be able to breast feed. I had a little more success today happily.

My kids are now 30, l only heard of this recently, tbh l dont really understand, l breastfed both mine , you have the baby and then the colostrum comes in...l couldn't have been bothered with all that in late pregnancy.
Can anyone explain why its a good thing?

I’ve never been able to get much of colostrum or pumping, with my first I bf for 15 months exclusively and I’m at 2 months with my second so far, don’t worry about it too much, I was quite distraught I couldn’t do it with my first but it didn’t matter.

It’s good because it means there is a food supply for the baby if they are unable to get their needs met at the breast. Some babies struggle with their latch, or the milk is delayed in coming in etc and having a stash of colostrum means that a breastfeeding mother doesn’t have to use formula.

Formula is essential for some families of course, but for a breastfed baby, introduction of formula decreases the protective gut bacteria fostered through breastfeeding. Even occasional or top ups can alter the baby’s microbiome for months.

I got colostrum before both of my babies. Hardly any for my first, and loads for my second. Thankfully neither actually needed it but I was able to give it to them over time.

I did it after a hot shower but also got my midwife to show me how to hand express and it turned out I was doing it all wrong. Managed to collect I think a good 5 syringes after that.

introduction of formula decreases the protective gut bacteria fostered through breastfeeding. Even occasional or top ups can alter the baby’s microbiome for months

Is there any specific evidence for this making a measurable difference? I'm evangelical about breastfeeding but this sounds like implausible scaremongering. It is simply not how the gut microbiome works. Formula does not kill off billions of beneficial microbes, nor does it introduce billions of harmful ones.

I've said this on many mn threads before. This all-or-nothing breastfeeding approach is not working for British mums. British mums overwhelmingly stop breastfeeding by 6 months, even though many say they'd like to carry on. And I strongly believe it's because they try so desperately to go "exclusive", that is unsustainable, and then they give up altogether after a few weeks.

Mixed feeding in whatever proportion, kept up for years, is far better for your baby's gut than EBF for a few weeks then giving up, which is what the majority of British mums are doing, mostly thanks to this all-or-nothing approach. I've seen it in so many of my mum friends.

I’d also love to know this as someone who was made to feel absolutely shit for giving a bit of formula by my health visitor.

I explained my reasons in my post, I knew I was having a complicated scheduled section at 37 weeks and was warned I might not be fit to feed the baby for a bit so having some colostrum to hand meant DH could give it to the baby. My consultant was supportive of if as she knew I’d bf my first and wanted to do it again.

In the end I was able to get him on while they were stitching me up and I didn’t need it at the time but he was absolutely tiny, tired quickly and was a bit slow to feed so I ended up feeding but also continuing to express colostrum to get as much in him as I could without him getting too tired and I carried on using the syringes to shovel breast milk into him I’d expressed from one side while feeding from the other for a week or two and his weight went up quickly.

I'm sorry, you won't be the only one.

I've never found anything well-evidenced that shows benefits of EBF over mixed feeding. This proves that breastmilk is beneficial rather than formula being harmful. If one does, say, 50-50 mixed formula and breastfeeding for two years, you get all the benefits, for example of microbial transfer, skin oils, baby-mother feedback during illness and adjusted breastmilk consistency during hot weather and cold, etc etc. You get far fewer of those benefits with expressed breastmilk (including colostrum) which is not "live". And I have never met any mum manage to sustain exclusive expressing for more than a couple of months, it is all-consumingly exhausting to express round the clock, and next to impossible if you have older children to manage too.

We'd do a better job for babies in this country if we encourage mums to breastfeed as much as they comfortably can, using a bit of formula at times if necessary, rather than making them feel like formula is failure so they might as well give up altogether if they fall off the wagon. Which is what is currently happening.

I wouldn’t worry about getting anything but do keep trying purely to get used to the motion of expressing and to get your mind used to your breasts being used for feeding. I got nothing at 36 weeks but was getting some by 40 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, of course exclusive breastfeeding might be even better than mixed as you're multiplying those benefits (I'm sceptical if it's mostly expressed though). But insisting that formula is harmful just puts intolerable pressure on mums and they buckle and give up and feel like they've failed, when really it's the scaremongers who have failed them. It is happening all round the country, all the time.

I never had a hint of colostrum until after the baby was born. It came straight after birth both times but it never happened while I was pregnant.