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Pumping and Storing Breast Milk

It is a known fact around the world that breast milk is the best food for your newborn baby. It contains the right balance of nutrients and it contributes in the improvement of your baby’s immune system. I am sure all of you mothers out there want to give your baby the best kind of milk there is, which means you have to breastfeed your baby. Before you start breastfeeding, make sure you are okay with the commitment it brings:-

You have to be available all the time

Babies drink a lot of milk, so you might have to take nursing breaks in public

However, there are some of you who are not comfortable with the idea of breastfeeding or you have tried it, but felt that it took too much time getting used to. Should you then settle with formula? Absolutely not! Keep in mind that even if you are not breastfeeding, it is very important to remove the milk from your breasts at the times your baby normally would feed. The best way to go about this is by pumping and storing your breast milk so that your baby still gets all the nutrients he/she needs and you do not have to get committed.

Purchasing & Using The Pump

The first task you would have to face is choosing a breast pump and learning how to use it. This is probably one of the hardest things you would have to face in the early stages of motherhood. When you shop around for a breast pump, you would come across so many different types of pumps with their own unique features. There are three types of pumps to choose from:-

Hand Expression

This method requires you to place one or both your thumbs on the top of your breast and your other fingers at the bottom. In that position, gently massage your breasts to activate the flow of milk. This method does need some practice and might take a while before you master it.

Manual Pump

The manual pump comes with a nozzle at the top, which is placed on your breast and a handle at the bottom for you to squeeze to get the milk to flow. The act of squeezing the handle is the same as the suction of a baby.

Electric Pump

An electric pump is either battery operated or has to be plugged into an electric outlet. This is probably the easiest method, as it does not require any work. Some electric pumps are able to pump both breasts at the same time, which means lesser pumping time.

Be sure to ask yourself a few questions before you decide what breast pump you want to use. The most important question you want to ask yourself is how often would you need to pump? If you are a stay at home mother and only have to be away from your baby once in a while, the hand expression would do the trick or a manual pump may be all you need. However, if you have to be away at work everyday, it is best to get an electric pump, as you would have to pump and store quite often.

The second question would be how much time can you put aside for breast pumping? An average time for pumping lasts about 10 to 15 minutes but if you have to pump in the morning before rushing to work or during work hours, it is best to invest in an electric pump because electric pumps have the ability to pump both breasts at once, reducing the pumping time by half.

The third and final question is how much can you afford to spend on a breast pump? If you are going for an electric pump, you might want to spend a little extra money on a good quality pump that would last you at least half a year. It is not recommended to borrow or buy a secondhand pump because there might be a small risk of contamination. It’s best for you to decide on something that you would be most comfortable with.

Storing Breast Milk

Storing breast milk can be tricky and confusing. You have to be well educated in what kind of containers to use, how to freeze your breast milk and how to thaw the milk.

Breast milk can be stored in glass containers, hard plastic containers with tight lids or milk storage bags specially made for human milk. Before expressing directly into one of these containers, make sure you wash the container with hot water and most importantly, do not get your washed hands into the sterilized container.

Once you are done expressing milk into the containers, cover them with their respective lids and label each container with the date and time you expressed. To reduce the amount of milk going to waste, store them in smaller containers based on the estimated amount your baby drinks. Breast milk is known to expand when kept in the refrigerator, so be sure not to fill the container up to its brim.

Expressed milk can last for about a week if stored in a refrigerator and up to twelve months if frozen. However, it is best to give your baby freshly expressed milk as some studies suggest that more vitamin C is lost in longer stored breast milk. It is also important to bear in mind that the stored milk from the time is baby is born would not meet the baby’s needs after a couple of months.

When it is feeding time, thaw the stored milk by simply placing the container under running warm water or into a bowl of warm water. Then proceed by gently swirling the bottle around to distribute the mixture; do not shake the container vigorously. It is best not to heat the container in a microwave or on the stove because it is known to affect the milk’s antibodies. Thawed milk only lasts for about 24 hours so be sure to discard any remaining.

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