Expressing before birth??

[poppydan]

My HV (who was a midwife)has advised me to start expressing milk at 36 weeks. Most advice on the internet seems to contradict this, claiming early expressing can cause uterine contractions and possible early labor. I am 36 + 6 and have tried without much success and am wondering whether to continue....Anyone had any similar advice from MW or HV? Thanks.

Seems dotty to me. Why on earth wold you need to?

The process of giving birth will trigger your milk, no need to do anything before. Besides which you are heavily pregnant and should be putting your feet up and eating chocolate not messing around with expressing.

That is madness. Why would you?

I completely agree with Indith!

Thanks for replies. Yes, I was a little confused. She didn't really explain the reasons for it. I think i'll leave it for now, it's not exactly the most enjoyable activity!

Seems nuts to me too. The hormone changes from giving birth are what triggers your milk to come in properly. At this stage surely you just have colostrum?

Are you planning on exclusively expresing for some reason?

We sometimes advise diabetic mums to express as the baby's blood sugar can drop significantly following birth if the mum's blood sugar has not been well controlled, and the baby may need frequent feeds. The thinking being that it will be better to syringe feed with ebm rather than formula.

Hi poppy

I was advised to do this as I had had a breast reduction and might not have enough colostrum to feed baby at first.

Like you I was a bit anxious about bringing on contractions but did it a bit from 37 wks onward or so.

I got a bit out but didn't have anything to put it into (bought some special bags for storing milk which were way too big and was pretty clueless altogether really) ummm so it was a bit pointless really. So there you go.

Thanks. I don't have any special health circumstances/problems and am just intending to breastfeed normally, if I can, so it does seem like unusual advice.

Definitely seems weird in that case, as you would normally not start expressing until breastfeeding is established if you want to try a mixture of breastfeeding and feeding expressed milk.

I had my session with the midwife today to go through colostrom harvesting as I have Gestational Diabetes and issues with low birth weight, but it seems bonkers to do it if you don't have any issues.

I was given 1ml syringes to express into and then store in the freezer. Having expressed colostrom for DS after he was born I can remember it used to take me about 30 mins to fill the 1 ml syringe and I ended up having to use formula until my milk came in. (There were a myriad of issues which meant this was necessary, most babies are fine on just colostrom, not saying you will need formula.) that's why I'm starting before giving birth this time.

Leaflet I was given today says:

"colostrum harvesting may benefit:

-Mothers with diabetes
-Mothers who have previously been diagnosed with poor or delayed milk production
-Mothers who have a BMI over 35
-Babies born with Downs Syndrome
-Babies born with Cleft Palate"

I was advised to do this by my MW for DS1, just to help in the establishment of milk supply she said. I didn't think to question it, just practised in the shower, not to save it or anything.

It turned out to be an absolute godsend... DS1 was a nightmare to feed, he wouldn't open his mouth to latch on and consequently got highly distressed, as did I, as I felt I was failing. Then one of the MW's asked if I could express and of course I could, she gave me a little sterilised cup which DS1 lapped from like a little kitten.

Feeding him calmed him down enough to get back on with practising our latch, with both of us feeling much happier about it all.

Not sure if any of this is 'right' or 'recommended', just relating what I was told, and what I did, and how it was helpful to me.

HTH

Honestly unless there was a real reason to need to do this I wouldn't bother. You're baby will manage to take what he/she needs if you bf on demand and if you have problems makesure you call/see all the right specialised breastfeeding counsellors who can help you. Just relax and enjoy the last few wks of your pg!

I asked my MW about this as last time i was literally pouring milk from about 30weeks. I didn't know if it would be worth freezing or whether it was any good for the local hospital.

She said it really wasn't worth much til after the baby is born.

This time although i am leaking slightly, i have nowhere near enough to think about expressing.

i did this from about 37 weeks with ds as i had an odd form of diabbetes and i did manage to fill quite a large number of syringes in case we had any issues with low blood sugar post delivery. But we did it with close supervision from the infant feeding midwife. I don't think she would have been happy at all recommending this type of expressing for someone with a normal striaght forward pregnancy.

(in the end we turned out not to need any of this milk as he latched v well - i did feel a litle disappointed that all our hard work expressing had gone to waste!)