How to store expressed breast milk

It's no secret that mother's milk is the most proper nutrition for a child, because it is the mother’s body that accurately guesses all the wishes of her baby. The composition of breast milk changes as the baby grows, new vitamins and minerals are added to it. Breastfeeding is the most natural and correct of all that a newborn can receive.

But there are situations when a mother needs to go away on her business and leave the baby in the care of dad or grandmothers for some time. In this case, there is a need to express breast milk into a bottle so that the baby does not have to feed the mixture during the absence of the mother. And if expressing milk is relatively simple, then the question of its proper storage must still be dealt with.

How to express

“Relatively simple,” we said. Let's find out how much.

The easiest option is to express milk using a special device - a breast pump.

1. Their great variety in the market: mechanical (manual) and electrical (powered by a network). The choice of this device depends entirely on your personal preferences.
2. Whatever breast pump you choose, remember that before using all its parts must be sterilized in accordance with the instructions in the instructions.
3. Before direct use of the device, carefully read the instructions for it: strictly follow the rules of operation and storage of the device.

Of course, this method can rightly be called easy, especially if you have well-developed milk ducts. In this case, the process occurs rather quickly, and the amount of expressed milk may be enough for several feedings.

If you do not trust the device or are afraid of injuring your mammary glands with your wrong actions, then you should resort to the second method of expressing milk.

Strain the milk by hand. The whole catch is that with constant breastfeeding and a stable set of baby masses when expressing milk, the mother experiences certain difficulties: as a result, only a couple drops of milk come out, and even then obtained through tears and pain. A logical question arises: “Why does the baby, when he is breastfeeding, get this milk so easily?” The fact is that at this moment the hormone oxytocin is actively produced in the mother’s body, which usually expands the narrow milk ducts in which milk accumulates. This process is laid down by nature itself; therefore, it occurs at the level of reflex.

Due to this unconditioned reflex, there are difficulties with self-pumping: oxytocin is not produced, and the ducts are narrowed and it is not possible to get the right amount of food for the baby. What to do?

Aspects of Self-Expressing

To stimulate the production of oxytocin and expand the milk ducts:

1. Try to be in direct contact with the baby while expressing: let it lie next to you and play, talk with it, then the brain will receive a signal about the baby’s proximity, stimulating the production of the hormone, and milk will go better.
2. Sometimes a gentle massage of the breast under a warm shower helps or alternately applying a warm, damp towel to one and the second breast: this expands the ducts.

The most effective milk pumping technique:

1. Grasp the chest with your fingers so that the large and the index are located on top and bottom of the chest parallel to each other (starting position: the border of the skin and halos).
2. Carefully carry out such a capture from the chest to the nipple, collecting milk in a previously prepared and sterilized container.The fingers should remain in the starting position.
3. At first, the milk will go tight, but after a while it will become easier to flow out of the nipple, since oxytocin will begin to be produced.
4. Alternate breasts if one completely stopped flowing from one.
5. Never express milk by squeezing and twisting only the nipple: you risk serious injury. This method is suitable only for those mothers in whom the "ejection" of milk occurs already due to stimulation of the nipples.
6. Try to express both breasts at a time so as not to decrease lactation: frequent expressions at evenly short intervals are ideal for this.

Milk storage

So, milk is expressed, you should think about the rules of its storage, so that during the period of absence of the mother, the child receives fresh food, and not sour curdled milk. Since breast milk combines various antibacterial and antifungal microorganisms, it can be stored for a long time.

Key dates:
At room temperature (~ 20º-22ºC), milk is stored in a fully sterile container for about six hours. In the refrigerator, the shelf life is not more than two days.

It should be remembered that a bottle of milk is not placed on the door of the refrigerator, but on a shelf, closer to the wall of the refrigerator: so the risk of getting fermented milk is much lower.

Milk can be stored in the freezer for one to two weeks. If you have the opportunity to deep freeze, then under such conditions, milk will retain its freshness for up to three months.

Fundamental rules

1. Do not forget to mark on the bottles / bags the date and time when the product was put in the refrigerator / freezer.
2. Milk left in the refrigerator or at room temperature tends to break up into two layers: particles saturated with fat float to the surface, settling in a kind of sediment. This should not scare you, because it is enough to shake the bottle so that the liquid becomes homogeneous again.
3. To warm up a bottle of food for the baby, place it under a stream of warm water. In no case do not resort to the help of an open flame or microwave: this will kill everything useful in milk, and your child risks food poisoning.
4. Once warmed up milk is forbidden to freeze repeatedly. Pour out the remains.
5. The taste of milk directly depends on the diet of the mother. If it is bitter, sweet or salty, this should not scare you, because the liquid absorbs all the juices from the food that you take. Sour taste is what should alert you. If you have doubts about the freshness of milk, give it to your husband or mother to try: maybe your fears are not unfounded, and the liquid really disappeared.
6. The color of milk, like taste, depends on the diet of the mother, so a slightly pinkish or green shade of expressed "food" should not scare you. After freezing, a yellowish tint is allowed - these are heavy fats that have come to the surface.

This is a win-win option if the mother needs to go away, and it is not possible for the child to feed with the mixture. Then expressing and storing breast milk is quite reasonable, but on a permanent basis this is still not worth practicing. Moreover, the risk of injury from constant pumping is much greater than if the baby is breastfeeding on her own.

Do not forget about the rules of hygiene before you start collecting milk: rinse your breasts, wash your hands and sterilize the dishes in which you will collect the “food”. First of all, think about the health of your baby.Since you are breastfeeding, then try to leave your baby as little as possible, but if the situation forces you, then do the whole procedure of pumping and storage according to all elementary rules.

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