Antenatal Expressing of Colostrum - My Experience of Colostrum Harvesting

Welcome to my week 40 blog entry on antenatal expressing of colostrum when I gave birth to my baby girl Alyssa. This entry has taken me about 11 weeks to write but I didn't want to do a half-assed job! Alyssa was born at week 40 plus 3 days, weighing a decent 8lbs 12.5oz. The birth was completely uneventful and I only needed gas and air to push her out. Needless to say, my hubby Steve and I are both very proud of her and amazingly overjoyed 😍 Her 17-month-old toddler brother Logan, still has plenty of adjusting to do but that will come with time and plenty of supervised interaction. We've had the standard medical checks on Alyssa and she's passed them all, so we are very happy. Her blood spot results will take about 3 weeks but the physical tests have been completed: Reflexes and reactions, hearing screening, weight and jaundice. **Update** blood spots all passed - no illnesses. While it's been a busy week adjusting to a new routine and having to go out eve

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