The right time to make a stock - EBM

What does expressing mean? 

Expressing is simply a way of taking milk from your breast without your baby suckling. You can do this: 

• by hand
• with a manual pump
• with an electric pump

Once you've expressed your milk, you can store it in the fridge or freezer to bottle feed to your baby later. 

Why express milk? 

Expressing means your baby can still have the benefits of breastmilk even if you are away from her. Whether you're just out for a few hours, or have gone back to work, your baby can carry on enjoying your milk while someone else is caring for her. 

If you're out for long, you will also need to express while you and your baby are apart. This will stop your breasts becoming too full and uncomfortable. 

If you gave birth prematurely, your baby may not be able to take milk straight from your breast at first. You can help her by expressing your milk. 
Expressing milk is also a great way to increase your overall milk supply. 

How do I express milk? 

Expressing by hand is the cheapest way to do it, because you don't need to buy equipment. It does take a bit of getting used to. The trick is to put pressure on the milk ducts behind your nipple, rather than squeezing the nipple itself. It's a useful knack to have and can help you to relieve your breasts if they're too full. Find out more about expressing by hand. 

You may find it easier to use a manual or electric pump. To use an electric pump, you put a suction cup over your breast, turn the machine on, and let it do the work. It'll extract your milk, depositing it in an attached container. Manual pumps also use a suction cup, but you'll have to repeatedly squeeze a handle to extract your milk. 

It takes anywhere between 15 minutes and 45 minutes to pump both your breasts. Don't use time to guide you, though. Just pump for as long as your milk is flowing well. Change breasts when the flow slows down, and pump each breast twice. Good breast pumps try to mimic the sucking action of your baby, stimulating your milk to come in (letdown reflex). Expressing shouldn't be painful. 

The right time to make a stock

Basically during our confinement, we will have a lot of breastmilk. You can start breast pump at 2nd week or 3rd week of confinement . When baby is sleeping, we can pump the milk either using manual or electric pump. You can start with one time breast pump in a day. Then raise up for the following day with twice a day, 3 times a day. So every time you breast pump you can keep inside the storage bag. There are many storage bag at market ( baby needs retails market). So when everyday you start breast pump so you can adjust your breast pump schedule. The right schedule for breast pump:

1. we can breast pump during baby asleep.

2. during our breast is full before give feeding to the baby. ( don't worry our breast milk such as toilet flush, every time we  flush, it will fill up )

3. you can start breast pump follow  the schedule breast pump during working time; for example: if working I always pump at 12pm and 5pm.

4. early morning, after wake up in the morning.

5. during feeding baby, you can breast pump other side of breast ( this is for expert mum can handle this situation)

Remember, if we face less milk during confinement, you can ask Bidan to massage for breast milk, I used to do for my 1st baby and 2nd baby. It was working, after massage the milk came out a lot.

How do I store breastmilk? 

It is best to put breastmilk in plastic feeding bottles with secure tops to seal in freshness. You can also use plastic bags made especially for storing milk, or disposable baby bottle liners. Remember to write the date on the bottle or bag before putting it in the fridge or freezer. It'll make it easy for you to work out in which order to use batches. 

To keep your milk safe in the fridge, you need to know how cold your fridge is. If your fridge doesn’t have a built-in thermometer, you can buy one from a kitchen or hardware shop. 

Freshly expressed milk can be stored for: 

• up to five days in the main part of a fridge, at 4 degrees C or lower
• up to two weeks in the freezer compartment of a fridge
• up to six months in a freezer, at minus 18 degrees C or lower

If you plan to store expressed breastmilk for fewer than five days, keeping it in the fridge is the best way to maintain all its goodness. 

Freezing milk destroys some of its antibodies. Antibodies are chemicals our bodies make to fight infections. So it's best not to freeze any that you plan to use within the time limits. Frozen breastmilk is still healthier for your baby than formula milk. 

You can thaw frozen milk in any of the following ways: 

• place the bottle or bag in a bowl of warm water
• run it under warm tap water
• defrost it in the fridge overnight

It's tempting to speed up the thawing or warming process, especially when you're busy. But using a microwave or hob to do the job will kill the nutrients in your breastmilk. Once the milk is thawed, use it straight away. Throw away partially drunk portions of milk. The milk will have mixed with your baby’s saliva and may not be hygienic for him next time. 

As well as a breast pump and containers for milk storage, you may need a portable cool box to carry expressed milk home from work.

start 2nd week of confirnement, manage to collect 80 packets x 4oz. Storage using  you have a baby plastic bag.