Breast Milk Expression Tips
If you are going to be away from your baby for any length of time, here are some breast milk expression tips to help keep a stash of breast milk on hand. Storing some of your breast milk before hand is a great way to continue to provide the benefits of breast milk to your child while you are away. Pumping ahead of time also allows close friends and family members to participate in the feeding process. Breast milk expression relieves engorged breasts and can either assist in maintaining or help increase your body’s milk production. Also if you are taking medication that may be harmful to your baby, pumping also helps prolong the body’s ability to produce milk so you can continue to breastfeed once you have finished taking the medication.
Breast Milk Expression Tips
- Always wash your hands before expressing or handling your milk.
- When looking for an electric pump to buy or rent, look for one that creates a milking action and is not only sucking device.
- One way to save time is to look at pumps that express milk from both breasts at the same time.
- Be sure that the pump can be easily disassembled and all parts that come into contact with skin or breast milk can be easily cleaned.
If you prefer hand expression either due to convenience of no extra equipment or that you wish to do so in a more quiet environment here are some manual breast milk expression tips:
- As always the first tip to make sure your hands are clean. Wash them well with soap and water.
- Use a a clean cup or container and place it under your breast.
- Massage the breasts gently toward the nipples.
- Place your thumb about 1 inch back from the tip of the nipple and your first finger opposite.
- Press downward into your chest, then gently squeeze and release the areola between the thumb with a smooth repeating motion until the milk flows or squirts out.
- Continually rotate the position of your thumb and finger around the areola to express milk from all areas of your breast.
Once you have collected a quantity of breast milk and are done for the moment, transfer the milk into clean covered/seal-able containers for storage in the refrigerator or freezer. Be sure to label the container with the date and time.
Please feel free to add your own breast milk expression tips as different mothers find variations that work best for them.
