Expressing Breast Milk by Hand
Most mothers find feeding their baby breast milk is easiest directly from the breast, but at times expressing milk by hand or pump is necessary to increase milk production, when your baby is sick or premature and you are separated, you've returned to work or for lifestyle flexibility. There are many ways to hand express, and with practice hand expressing gets easier. Our midwives will help you learn.
Before hand-expressing, wash your hands well and collect a clean bowl to catch your milk. Gently massage your breasts in circles towards the areola. Position the pads of your thumb and forefinger at the edge of the areola. Pressing in and against the breast and compressing them together. Relax and repeat, getting a rhythm going. Move fingers to a different position, massage and Stroke the breast and compress the thumb and fingers together again. Repeat until you have moved right around the breast.
Freshly expressed milk should be placed into a pouch or a clean container with a lid. It can be left at room temperature for up to four hours, stored in the main section of a fridge for 3 to 5 days or in a freezer for up to 3 months. Remember to label breast milk with the date and time expressed.
Once your milk supply is established, breastfeeding works on a supply and demand process. When a breast is full, milk production slows, and when it's empty, it speeds up. The more milk you express, the more milk you will make. Our midwives are here to help, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Every mother experiences let down and in a different way. A let-down occurs when you first see the tips of milk coming away from the nipple and it can happen a few times throughout the feed. To assist with the let-down, hand expressing or even bringing the baby to the breast will help with a let-down. So mothers that have got the milk supplies in then you would express to the flow stops. So until the flow stops means usually just dripping out, it's not still forceful and if there isn't a lot of milk then we can say at least five to ten minutes on each side.
