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, I'm 37 weeks' pregnant now and I've been expressing colostrum for a grand total of 10 weeks! I'm so pleased I continued to express and store my liquid gold for little one and I've not experienced any signs or symptoms of preterm labour in my low risk pregnancy. Perhaps I'm proving the doubters wrong... In any case, I'm not expressing to prove a point, rather I did it initially to relieve breast discomfort which I associated with the need to express colostrum antenatally. Storing it and having a stash was just a bonus but I hardly imagined I'd have as much as I have today... To date, I have expressed over 426ml of colostrum. So for this week's blog, I thought it'd be appropriate to provide you with my top 10 tips on expressing colostrum antenatally. Top 10 Tips on Antenatal Expressing of Colostrum 1. Always, always, always discuss with your midwife first  - As soon as you've reached the third trimester you can technically sta

Welcome to my 36 week colostrum harvesting blog update. This week I'm doing a video update as there isn't a huge amount else to write about other than the fact that I am still pregnant and I have been expressing my colostrum since week 27 of pregnancy and storing it since week 28.  It's important to note that I still do not have any signs of preterm labour (a major concern for some women who may not be having a low risk pregnancy), which is why expressing colostrum antenatally from an early stage in pregnancy in the third trimester is very controversial. I have been following advice from the La Leche League and ideally I wanted to be expressing twice a day from week 36, however due to to other commitments I have not been able to do this so I have kept to my once a day routine in the evening.  This week of my pregnancy has been very busy. I have wrapped up at work and I'm very pleased to be starting my maternity leave. I've also been nesting quite a lot and wanting

It's now week 35 of my pregnancy and colostrum harvesting has been going really well since week 28. I have been storing and saving my colostrum and I have a freezer drawer that is absolutely packed full of 1ml syringes! I'm very pleased with this amount and did not expect to have so much colostrum expressed at this stage. It has been a busy couple of weeks so this blog entry, much like my last blog, is just a recap of my colostrum harvesting diary. I've been doing a lot at work handing things over to a lady covering my maternity leave, which starts in a couple of weeks, and balancing that with looking after a little toddler.  Again, I've been feeling quite tired this week and I'm starting to feel massive 🤣 All my pregnancy symptoms have been normal. There's been no cramping or any signs of preterm labour whatsoever, so I've been very fortunate! But yes, I have expressed every single day in the evenings which has helped build a good supply for my

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