BREASTFEEDING

Expression of Breast Milk

You can express breast milk either manually with your hands or with a breast pump. Pumping enables you to breast feeding by keeping your milk stimulating. If milk is not emptied regularly it send a message back to your body to stop producing milk

Manual Expression of Breast Milk:

Some women prefer manual expression because it can be done silently and does not require any instruments.

To express milk manually:

Wash your hands clean with soap and water.
Put a clean cup or a container under your breast.
Massage your breast gently towards the nipples.
Place your thumb about 2 to 3 inches back from tip of the nipple and your index finger below
Start pressing from the base of the breast towards the areola (dark area around the nipple) between the thumb and the fingers with a rhythmic motion until the milk squrites out.
Rotate your thumb and finger around the aerola to get milk from different positions.
You should stop expressing milk when it ceases to come out as a jet or starts coming in drops.
Transfer the milk to a clean covered container for storage  .   Always label the container and put a date and time on it.

Breast Pumps:

Breast pumps are manual, battery-operated, or electric. You can find manual pumps in most pharmacies and baby stores.Your Gyaenecologist or Pediatrician is the right person to advise you regarding choice of method. E-com ads.

Hand pumps:

Some hand pumps have a handle to squeeze that creates a negative pressure and draws the milk into the bottle. These may have a soft, pliable flange that fits around the nipple and areola

Electric pumps:

Electric pumps stimulate the breast more effectively than manual expression or hand pumps though it is more expensive and kept in large hospitals/ milk banking centers. They are used mainly to keep breastfeeding going when a mother is not able to breastfeed for several days or more.

Storage of Expressed Milk
Importance should be given for proper handling and safe storage of your expressed milk.

• Always wash your hands before handling your milk.
• For storing the milk use clean containers.
• Try using hard plastic cups or special heavy nursery bags, which can be used to feed your baby.
• Keep the milk expressed at different times in different containers. 
• Expressed milk should be stored in the refrigerator.
• Human milk should not be stored for more than 8 hours at room temperature.
• Store the milk in the sealed container in a refrigerator. Use this milk with in 24 hours if possible. Discard all  milk that has been refrigerated for more than 72 hours.
• If you will not be using the milk within 24 hours freeze it. Frozen milk is good for at least 1 month. (3 – 4 months if kept at 0 degrees) Make sure to label the milk with the date that you freeze it.
• Freeze 2 – 4 ounces of milk, as this is the average
  amount of single feeding. 
• Don’t add fresh milk to the already frozen one.
• Use the oldest milk first.

Reuse of Stored Milk

The stored milk should be brought back to room temperature before feeding.

• You may thaw freezed milk in the refrigerator or by swirling the container in a bowl of warm water.
• Milk thawed in the refrigerator must be used within 24 hours.
• Breast milk does not need to be boiled.
• Don’t use microwave ovens to heat bottles because the heating is not evenly done. This uneven heating can damage the milk or scald your baby.
• Excessive heating can destroy the important proteins, vitamins and other contents of the milk.
• Don’t re-freeze your milk.
• Don’t save milk from used bottle for using at another feeding.

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