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
I started expressing colostrum from week 27 of my second pregnancy when I experienced breast discomfort. I have continued to express, store and keep a diary of my colostrum harvesting as a record of my experience for other women to read. There simply isn't any significant information out there for women who are researching antenatal colostrum expressing at such an early stage of a healthy low risk pregnancy.