You’ve made your decision to breast feed your baby. Great! This is the best possible nutrition you can provide for her. Most breast fed babies nurse on demand, not on a schedule. These babies tend to feed more often than formula fed babies. Feeding babies on demand requires you to really pay attention to your baby’s cues. Some mothers, more often than not, find themselves in a situation where they may be separated from their babies. This may be due to a work situation or just to run errands. It is difficult for some mothers to feel “tied down” to their babies. Some new mothers may feel modest about revealing their breast in public and would like to be able to bottle feed their baby in a restaurant or a department store. Fortunately, we have the luxury in our culture of purchasing and utilizing a breast pump.
A comfortable breast pump should be fairly easy to come by. There are a range of models to choose from. The price may vary from and inexpensive manual pump to a deluxe, double electric one that comes in a fancy case. Essentially, all breast pumps do the same thing. The one thing to remember when trying them out is that nothing is going to get the milk out as easily and naturally as your baby. Pumping takes some getting used to so hang in there. You will get used to it!
Make sure that the containers that you are using to catch the milk are sterile. To sterilize the container, submerge it in boiling water for two minutes. Let the containers air dry on a clean paper towel. When you are ready to use the breast pump, make sure that you have sterilized all of the parts to the specifications that come with the pump. The directions should come in the box or are easily obtainable from the manufacturer. Get comfortable. Position yourself on a soft chair or sofa and use pillows or whatever else you may need to relax. Pumping may take a while and you will be tied to your seat for the duration. The best time to pump milk is in the morning when your breasts feel the most full.
If you plan on feeding it to your baby within the next ten hours, you will not need to refrigerate it. Human milk can stay on the counter for up to ten hours before it begins to spoil. If you are running out and put the breast milk in a cooler with ice packs so that it stays slightly below room temperature, it will keep up to 24 hours. Your pumped breast milk will be safe in the refrigerator for up to eight days. To ensure that it won’t spoil, place the breast milk towards the back of the refrigerator. Never place the pumped breast milk in the door.
If you have a freezer compartment inside of your refrigerator and no other freezer, it can stay in there for up to two weeks. This is different from your self- contained freezer unit of your refrigerator. If you place the breast milk in there, it can remain safe for up to three to six months depending on how often you open the freezer door. Freshly pumped breast milk may also be placed in a deep freeze type of freezer. This type of freezer resembles a toy chest. It can stay in this kind of freezer for 6 – 12 months. Frozen milk allowed to thaw may be placed in a refrigerator for up to 24 hours.
When deciding on how often your baby will be receiving the pumped breast milk, there are many storage issues to consider. The material that the containers are made from is one giant factor. If you need plenty of milk on hand the obvious choice would be refrigeration over freezing. When refrigerating human breast milk, the white cells stick to glass. This is when plastic storage containers work best. If you know that you will not be using the milk within eight days and you plan to freeze it, glass is the favored option as it is less porous and offers the greatest defense. The majority of the white cells, or leukocytes, will be killed by the freezing process.
There are bags made specifically for pumped breast milk. They are sterilized and made with a special kind of plastic in which nothing sticks to the sides and important nutrients aren’t lost. These bags are called CSF bags which stands for Collect, Store, and Freeze. CSF bags also come with special labels in which to date your pumped breast milk. Don’t confuse these bags with bottle bags. Bottle bags are designed to fit into a bottle used to feed the baby. These may be sterilized but they are not thicker (2-ply), coated with polyethylene, and lined with nylon like the CSF’s.
You might notice that your milk has separated after refrigeration. That is the cream separating from the milk. Before you feed your baby with it, you can swirl the bottle around a bit to mix it back together. If you pump your milk and don’t collect very much, you may add to the refrigerated bit as long as it is within 24 hours. If you initially pump only an ounce or two and leave it on the counter, you can pump directly into it as long as it is within ten hours and then you would have to give it to your baby after that. If you have frozen breast milk that you’d like to add to, that is alright if you chill the fresh milk for at least a half an hour before adding it to the frozen breast milk.
Frozen breast milk should never be thawed in the microwave or on the stove. This could change the properties of the breast milk. If you need to thaw it out, you can run it under water in the sink in which you will gradually warm up. There are also new products available designed for thawing out frozen breast milk. You should always shake the container before testing the temperature to make sure that the temperature is even all the way through the bottle. An important thing to remember about thawed breast milk is that it cannot be refrozen. It should also never be reheated.
