Expressing before birth? 38 weeks ... advice please!

Question

Hey! I’m 38+1 weeks pregnant and I want to express rather than breast feed as I have 2 other boys and dad who also want to help do the feeds my midwife said I could start using my pump from 38 weeks and store the milk, has anyone ever done this? How long did you pump for and does it have to be frozen right away or can you fill it before freezing the bottle? My other boys were formulae fed so this is new to me! Got a sweep at 38+4 so don’t want him to be hungry when he arrives :) thank you :)

Answer

Do you plan to exclusively pump or do some sort of combination of breastfeeding and pumping? If you plan to exclusively pump you’ll definitely be needing milk storage bags, so I’d get those now. You can definitely combine milk into manageable sizes in the bags, maybe 1-2 oz for the first days. I always did 4 oz bags for when I was working, we’d nurse when together. If you aren’t set on exclusively pumping I’d consider a combination of breastfeeding and pumping with only breastfeeding in the very beginning. While I never exclusively pumped, I know it has a lot of challenges. Dad and brothers will get loads of chances to bottle feed this way too and you won’t constantly be hooked up to a pump, cleaning pump parts and trying to mom while sticking to a strict pump schedule.

Answer

You’ll only get colostrum at first and it will only be a little bit. You can store it in a milk bag in the freezer or in a little syringe. I think I read 8 days in the fridge but double check that! They have tiny tummies so you don’t need a lot the first day or 2.

Expressing before birth? 38 weeks ... advice please!

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