Antenatal Expressing of Colostrum - My Experience of Colostrum Harvesting

Welcome to my week 39 blog entry on antenatal expressing of colostrum. As a quick recap, I've been expressing since week 27 of pregnancy and storing colostrum since week 28 to mitigate breast discomfort. The discomfort felt like that full feeling you get when you're full of milk, although it's more concentrated in the centre of the breast like a marble. Following guidance from my midwife and the La Leche League , I have been expressing colostrum antenatally for 12 weeks and I have successfully circumnavigated the risk of pre-term labour.  Please note, however that the amount of colostrum I am expressing is far greater than that which is usually expected for someone just starting out, simply because I've been doing it a lot longer. I have a huge stash of colostrum in my freezer totalling over half a litre, so I know my little baby girl will have a plentiful supply if breast feeding gets off to a rocky start (as it did with my first one!) It has still been challenging loo

Well, this week was an interesting one... Partly because I'm nearing to the end of my colostrum expressing journey but also my toddler and I were both in a car accident (so the picture above seemed most fitting)! Long story short, the person who drove into us on a dual carriageway also hit another vehicle, then they failed to stop. Physically, we are both ok and so is our unborn baby who has been checked out by the midwife however I do appreciate that things could have been very different...  So, guess what this week's blog topic will be about 😅 Not what anyone needs close to their due date or indeed at all! I am however, still pregnant at the time of writing this (39 weeks), so if expressing colostrum from 27 weeks pregnant and having a fairly high speed car accident at 38 weeks doesn't influence when my labour happens, then I think I'm definitely not at risk of the baby 'falling out' or having pre-term labour as some of the antenatal colostrum har

Welcome to my 33 week update on my antenatal colostrum harvesting blog. This week I talk about my expressing diary, factors that I've found to increase my supply of colostrum and investigating how I can donate my colostrum to the local hospital or milk bank.  My Colostrum Harvesting Diary at Week 33 of Pregnancy - Week commencing 2nd February 2021 My last day of expressing was 1st February 2021. I am hand expressing colostrum daily and usually express from one side and when that's empty, switch to the other, then back again etc until both sides are empty and that discomforting feeling of 'needing to express' is gone. Last week I thought my daily supply would drop a little as I've gone from expressing once every other day, to once everyday. However it seems that my body has adjusted quite quickly to the new expressing routine as the overall amount of colostrum for this week is greater than last week. It's also important to note that I am still not exp

So, I'm 32 weeks pregnant now with my second baby and I've been expressing colostrum roughly every other day since week 27 to relieve breast discomfort and to provide a small stash for my baby which will greatly help with breastfeeding and minimising baby's weight loss in the first few weeks. It's been going really well so far and I've experienced no issues or any signs or pre-term labour, which is a risk for some women.  From this point in my pregnancy, I've decided to express once a day as I'm now a bit closer to my due date and want to gradually start to increase colostrum production, however I must emphasize that I'll be taking a very gradual approach , so as not to induce any signs or symptoms of preterm labour. At week 36, most medical sources online say you can start expressing colostrum 2-3 times a day which is what I plan to do when I reach that stage in my pregnancy. At 32 weeks pregnant, I'll continue to hand express instead of

Welcome to my 31 week blog on expressing colostrum during pregnancy. So instead of writing loads, this week I decided to do a summary video of my thoughts and experiences from when I started expressing colostrum at week 27 of pregnancy  to date.  In the video I don't talk about techniques for expressing colostrum, colostrum FAQs or top tips etc as there's lots of other very informative videos already online, so no need to cover it off again! You can watch my video on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/6Qt3hH-BZ1U My Colostrum Harvesting Diary at Week 31 of Pregnancy - Week commencing 19th January 2021 My last day of expressing was 17th January 2021.  19th January  - Hand expressed 5.7ml of colostrum. About 10mins per side in the evening. 20th & 21st January  - I did not feel the need to express. 22nd January  - Hand expressed 7.4ml of colostrum. About 10mins per side. This evening, I had a short 5 min break between 2x expressing sessions, both 5 mins each. As I don't let do

My Colostrum Harvesting Diary at Week 30 of Pregnancy - Week commencing 12th January 2021 My last day of expressing was 10th January 2021.  12th January  - I did not feel the need to express. 13th January  - Hand expressed 6ml of colostrum in the evening. About 10mins each side. I did feel as though I could have expressed a little more but I did not as I only wanted to relieve the discomfort, not to stock up. 14th January  - I did not feel the need to express. 15th January  - Hand expressed 2.5ml of colostrum in the evening. About 5 mins per side. 16th January  - Hand expressed 6.4ml of colostrum in the evening. About 10 mins per side. I had eaten alot over the past two days - snacking on chocolates and oaty cereal bars mostly which is why I think I've expressed so much in one go 😂 17th January  - Hand expressed 6.4ml of colostrum again this evening at about 10mins per side.  18th January  - I did not feel the need to express. Total expressed for the week: 21.3ml

Well, it's week 29 of my pregnancy and I've been harvesting colostrum to relieve breast discomfort for about 2 weeks. I feel the rate of antenatal expressing of colostrum has been more stable this week as I have mostly expressed every other day. This is due to getting over eating so much at Christmas! I also talk about some of the physical changes I've started to experience when hand expressing colostrum - but these are all normal for me as I have experienced them with my first pregnancy when I did not need to express colostrum before birth. After conducting what feels like a tonne of not very satisfactory online research in previous weeks, talking to my local midwives and breastfeeding experts (including other mums!) on forums, I feel a lot more confident in my decision to continue to hand express as and when I need at this stage in my pregnancy. And yes, this week's main image 'believe in yourself' may seem a bit cliché, however that is how I am fe

Hi everyone thanks for visiting my blog. I just wanted to document my journey on expressing colostrum before birth otherwise known as antenatal expressing from 27 weeks pregnant. This is a very controversial subject area, so I've found out online recently, but is growing in popularity according to my local midwives. However, when I have come to research this, there is a distinct lack of information in support of expressing colostrum at this stage of my pregnancy or about people's experiences generally, which is part of the reason why I wanted to record my experience here. What is Colostrum? Colostrum is a thick sticky liquid that mum's make from about 16-20 weeks of pregnancy which becomes baby's first feed when they are born. It is usually cream, yellowish or even orange in colour - this varies in all women. Colostrum has a high fat content and contains lots of other beneficial vitamins and minerals that baby needs for growth, and of course lots of antibodi