Colostrum before giving birth

Self expressing while pregnant can cause preterm labor. Though I remember before my first was born my boobs would just leak 😂

i collected before birth! i put them in syringes and froze them for the hospital. i’ve only heard it can make you go into labor early, but I was getting induced early anyway, and I did it for a few weeks before the induction!

I see!! And if you start collecting before birth, does it mean you continuously need to pump until the baby comes or you can stop for a while?

How close to the nipple do we need to get? Ive tried so many times and still come up empty

@Yelena you can stop, I haven’t collected any in a few days where we’ve been busy. Obviously if you felt like you were contracting then stop but when my daughter was first born she had jaundice. That meant she was super sleepy and wasn’t feeding properly. The colostrum that I took into hospital topped her feeds up, the alternative being that if she wasn’t feeding that she would have needed a feeding tube. Sometimes giving them colostrum before feeding makes them a bit more alert which helped her. It also has so many antibodies in it. If it’s something you want to do then have a research and talk to your midwife. I think if you’re high risk there are some reasons to not so just check. Other than that I’d say there are many more positives than negatives. You can freeze and store it and give to bubba if they’re ever poorly. Xx

I’ve started collecting some, I keep it in the syringe in a sandwich bag in the freezer :) I’m 39+5 and not caused me to go into labour..

@Rachel I use my breast pump, I find hand expressing I get none.

My midwife gave me these print outs , the 2nd one isn’t the best quality

I will be having a planned C-section at 39 weeks so I’ve started trying to collect once a day to ensure I have supply for baby when she arrives as I was worried my body wouldn’t be ready

You can collect from 37 weeks, anything sooner isn’t recommended… colostrum isn’t something you have to collect, it’s the thicker pre-milk. When I gave birth to my son I couldn’t breast feed straight away so it took my stress away knowing he could have the colostrum but now with my second I haven’t collected any… not sure, might try get a few tubes in before my due date on Tuesday lol

Thank you all so much, very useful to know as no one in my private hospital (Lindo wing, st Mary’s, London) has ever told me about it! 🥲🤣 I will talk to them about it on my next appointment, I think it’s good to have it just in case anyway!

Collostrum harvasting and breast stimulation is good practice to boost milk production. (Its not just for the collection ofbthe colostrum for cases of seperation between mother and baby in hospital, but as a tool to start milk production mechanism. ). The first hours and days after birth are crucial for milk supply building and some colostrum collection can stimulate your process. You can read our blog for tipshttps://mylee.life/blogs/mylee-blog/breastfeeding-the-basics