Women express breastmilk for many different reasons, sometimes they express because their breasts are feeling very engorged and swollen. And its just to make themselves feel a little bit more comfortable.
Sometimes they're expressing milk in order to build up milk supply because the more milk that's pulled off a mum's breasts, the more milk she will produce. Sometimes mum's will express breast milk to somebody else can feed their baby.
Maybe because baby in special care or maybe because mum's returning to work or just wants a night out. Women can express breast milk in different ways. They can use their hands or sometimes people prefer to use a breast pump.
You can use a manual breast pump, that you operate by hand. Or one that's battery operated or electrical pumps. Sometimes women, if they are needing to express all of their breastmilk will hire a hospital grade electric pump.
It's really important, when expressing breastmilk, that everything that has contact with that breastmilk is sterilised. Cold water sterilising, with sterilising tablets. Microwave sterilising, they're lots of different ways you can sterilise products.
Once breastmilk has been expressed, you can store it in different ways. Breastmilk will keep at room temperature for six hours, it will keep in the back of the fridge for six days. Or in your freezer for six months. Once its defrosted, you have up to twenty four hours to use it.
To defrost breastmilk it's really important that you do not use a microwave because it breaks down some of the properties of the breastmilk and it can also create hot spots within it, for a baby.
When women first start expressing breastmilk, it's very common for them not to notice much milk coming off at all. that's very common, and will often improve the more that they start expressing.
Women often find it easier to express breastmilk when they are really relaxed. First thing in the morning, is a really good time because prolactin levels, the hormone that makes breastmilk are highest overnight.
And women also find it really easy to express breastmilk when they are with their baby, when they are thinking about their baby. Looking at their baby. Or even straight after a feed.
If you do decide to use a breast pump, to express the milk, it's really important to follow those instructions properly. And you might find it useful to speak to your midwife or your health visitor or perhaps to peer support or someone in a breast feeding support group about how they work well.
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