When to start expressing milk for newborn
Collecting your milk before the birth of your baby
[Music]
hi I'm Naomi I'm Jess and we're from the
upper fielding team at New Cross this
video has been made to introduce
families to the idea of collecting
breast milk before the birth of your
baby or babies the benefits of
breastfeeding for mother and baby are
well recognized breast milk is not just
about food it also provides comfort and
protection there are several reasons why
collecting milk before the birth might
be recommended so experience shows that
every pregnant woman who wishes to give
her baby breast milk would benefit from
learning me and hand expressing
technique for collecting breast milk in
this film we will demonstrate the hand
expressing technique which is the ideal
way to stimulate the release of breast
milk in pregnancy a woman produces
breast milk at around 20 weeks and this
milk is also known as colostrum it's
specifically designed to be very
concentrated and your baby's stomach
starts very small and grows over the
first few days colostrum milk gives your
baby everything they need in a very
small amount so literally every drop
does count when expressing the milk
before the birth it's best to wait until
around 36 37 weeks of pregnancy
very little is needed for hand
expressing just a sterile container or a
collection cup for storage if you're
having your baby at New Cross you can
collect a syringe pack from the
antenatal clinic reception desk during
your pregnancy after the birth you can
hand express your milk to drip feed
directly to your baby by wiping droplets
on their lips or by catching droplets on
a clean finger and putting the drop in
their mouth known as finger feeding
when the milks more free-flowing then
you can use a wide container like a bowl
or drug that's being sterilized firstly
and we're going to talk about how to use
the hand explicit technique to collect
your breast milk before you start it is
it's advised that you give your hands a
really good wash and then find somewhere
comfortable to sit in
relax somewhere where you're not likely
to be dessert want can be very helpful
with an encouraging the letdown of the
breast milk and quite often a bath or a
shower or a warm flannel placed over the
breast before beginning is effective in
fact some women find that practicing the
stimulation part of the technique in the
bath or shower can help it may even be
useful to have your partner or friend to
do some gentle neck and shoulder or foot
massage so it's important to stimulate
the breast this can be done by simply
placing your hand above the breast and
stroking in a firm but comfortable
movement down towards the nipple
many women find that placing a small
amount of moisturizing lotion or oil in
the palm of the hand can help with this
you can move in these in long firm
strokes all around the breasts changing
hands as you feel the need to and
repeating this from at one to two
minutes massaging and stimulating the
whole breast another way to stimulate is
to create a soft fist
with your hands using the flat side of
your knuckles and then gently rolling
the fist across the breast once again
moving around the breast and swapping
hands if you need to
some women find that stimulating the
nipple can also help so you can do this
by placing the nipple in between your
thumb and your forefinger and very
gently rolling backwards and forwards
continue for a short while but not so
that it becomes uncomfortable so if
you're practicing this in the bath or
shower now is the time to step out find
a comfortable place to sit and let's
move on to the process of actually
expressing the milk we want to find an
area in the breast that's going to be
most effective for you to do this place
your thumb and finger just at the base
of the nipple you want to walk the hand
back in a c-shape towards your chest
feeling for a change under the skin some
women can feel a change and others can't
if you can't feel a change then just go
two finger widths from the base of the
nipple placing your thumb and fingers
opposite each other and then simply
compress together and release compress
and release it doesn't matter where the
skin changes color this doesn't have any
effect on what's inside the breasts go
for the toothed finger whips back thumb
and fingers opposite each other
compress and release so keeping your
hand in a c-shape try to avoid sliding
your thumb or fingers down towards the
nipple as this can drag the skin and
make it uncomfortable by compressing the
thumb and fingers together this
stimulates the body to start to release
the milk it can take a few minutes
before you actually notice anything cut
the nipple and that's perfectly normal
the technique can take a few goes to get
a hang of it and so don't worry if you
don't see results immediately
some women find that a pushback
technique can be helpful
this can gently increase the pressure
inside the breasts as mentioned earlier
if you're collecting your milk during
pregnancy or in the first few days after
birth
this colostrum milk can be very thick
and concentrated with everything a baby
needs so it's normal for this milk to
form droplets not to appear free-flowing
when you see the droplet forming simply
use a syringe by placing the tip under
the droplet and pulling the plunger to
draw the droplets into the syringe then
continue repeatedly compressing and
releasing the breasts until another
droplet forms and repeat when droplets
slow or stop rotate your hand around the
breasts and continue with rhythmic
compressing and releasing feel free to
swap hands if you feel the need to once
you have finished expressing your milk
from one breast you may wish to take a
rest otherwise you can move to the other
breast and repeat if you experience
tightening or hardening of the belly
which then passes you don't need to
worry too much this is known as Braxton
Hicks contractions however and should
they start to feel like period pains or
cramps all marg labor contractions stop
and if you feel that you might be a
neighbor please contact your Midwife so
once you've collected some milk you need
to store it safely if you're interrupted
while expressing and you forget to put
your milk in the fridge straight away
don't worry and it's fine for up to four
hours at room temperature once you've
finished you can place the container of
milk into the main part of the fridge
and store it safely for up to 5 days
once you've reached the five days the
syringe can go into the freezer and
there it
to be stored for up to six months to
help keep track of the days it's
recommended to use the stickers in your
syringe pack and label each syringe not
the packet the syringe itself with your
name Hospital number which will start
with a letter and then five or six
numbers and the date and time that you
first start adding to that syringe when
you're coming into the hospital to the
for the birth bring any express milk
with you using a call bag and an ice
pack for transport once you arrive you
want to ask a member of staff to put
your milk in the fridge if you're having
your baby at home it can say that the
milk can stay in the fridge or freezer
until needed
okay so once your baby is for the first
step is to have that lovely skin-to-skin
contact that Wizkid skin put on and
offer your baby the rest the babies
instinct to suck on is really strong and
many babies latch on to the breast in
the first hour on their own if your baby
is sleepy you can use the hand
expressing technique you've been
practicing to drip these droplets of
milk to the baby by wiping them on the
lips with a nice clean finger so if baby
is sleepy and you don't feel able to
hand Express you can then request that
the milk that you've bought is then
collected from the fridge for you to
give to your baby skin-to-skin cuddles
also help to balance your baby's blood
sugar levels as well as providing many
of the benefits once your baby's born
it's recommended to continue the
skin-to-skin uninterrupted for as long
as possible and if it's necessary to
stop it's best to return baby's skin to
skin as soon as possible
even if the milk that you've collected
isn't needed in the first hour after
birth you can still give it to your baby
and continue hand expressing and
drip-feeding
if your baby is sleepy or taking time to
learn how to attach to the breast and
actively circle once your baby's
actively breastfeeding it should feel
comfortable any discomfort or pain is
our body's Way of telling us that an
adjustment to the baby's latch is needed
if you have any concerns or questions
about collecting your breast milk during
pregnancy expressing in general or other
breastfeeding queries please contact us
at the infant feeding team on oh one
nine oh two three oh seven nine nine
nine extension eight three eight nine or
the National breastfeeding hotline on oh
three hundred one hundred Oh two twelve
other online information can be found in
the infant feeding teams web pages by
searching online for you and your baby
over Hampton
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