All About Expressing Breast Milk
Expressing milk is when a mother removes the milk in her breast for storage. This is usually done when a mother cannot breastfeed her child directly, but would still like her child to benefit from breast milk.
It is a great option for mothers who need to go back to work or if they need to be away from their child, and they know that a feeding session should occur while they are away. It can also be a solution for a mother who is having trouble breastfeeding, or encountering a breastfeeding problem. Finally, if your baby is sick and is unable to feed normally because of how they are feeling, expressing milk and feeding it to your baby through feeding spoons or in very bad cases a nasogastric tube can be the way your child can continue to feed with breast milk.
When expressing milk, a mother can choose to massage her breasts or use a breast pump. Breast pumps are much more efficient than manual expressing, and they are discussed in detail in a separate article, along with how to properly store breast milk. Manual pumping on the other hand, though harder to do are great for mom’s who only need to express breast milk once in a while. Some mothers actually find manual expressing easier.
Start any expressing session by washing your hands, and making sure your breasts are also clean. Next, gently massage your breasts so that the milk moves down the ducts and towards the nipple. Remember to massage downwards and towards your areola. After you’ve massaged your breast, place your thumb a few centimeters away from your nipple, and use your other four fingers to form the letter “c” around your breast. Then squeeze your thumb and fingers together. You can also choose to run you thumb down your breast, and as you approach the areola, press in and up. Continue doing this around your breast.
The milk should squirt easily out. Collect the milk in a bowl or container. If you are correctly expressing, the milk will come out in steady streams with every squeeze. You can stop expressing when the streams lessen in force and goes down to a drip. If you feel pain when you squeeze and the expressing seems ineffective this could mean that your thumb and fingers are too close to your nipples. Stop the squeeze and try again. It shouldn’t be a painful process to express breast milk.
Another reason to express breast milk is if your breasts are engorged or full of milk. Having engorged breasts can be uncomfortable, and sometimes the only way to lessen the pressure is to express milk. This is fine because your baby can always drink this milk later on.
Expressing breast milk helps keep your milk supply steady. This is good for mothers who cannot breastfeed their child during the day. Some mothers choose to feed their children only with expressed breast milk. This is known as exclusively expressing.
Usually, exclusively expressing happens when a child cannot or is unable to latch on properly to their mother’s breasts. If this is the case between you and your baby, establish good expressing or pumping habits within the first four months of breastfeeding. These first four months is when your breast milk supply is being established. If established well, you can continue expressing milk and feeding your child with breast milk for as long as you or your child wants to.
Doctors will generally advise mothers not to begin feeding your child with a baby bottle until they are used to and are good at sucking directly from your breast. Feeding from a bottle too soon can lead to nipple confusion (more on that in chapter six.) If you want to feed your child expressed breast milk before they are used to sucking directly from your breast, and you also want to avoid nipple confusion, use feeding spoons and cups to feed your child. This can be very useful for premature babies, who usually rely on expressed breast milk because premature babies may have complications or difficulties with direct feeding.
Expressed breast milk can be stored in several different types of containers, and in varying lengths of time depending on the manner in which it is stored. Storage methods and recommendations for expressed breast milk will be discussed in chapter five under the section of milk pumping.
Next Article: A Look at Tandem Breastfeeding
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