Storing Breastmilk

 

Breast milk is a magical substance, specially designed to feed little humans. It contains anti-bodies and anti-microbial substances, this means that the rules for storing breast milk is a little different to storing formula or pasteurised cows/goats milk.
These guidelines below are widely accepted as the correct and proper way to keep your precious expressed milk free from bacterial growth and contamination.

Immediate Use of Fresh Milk

If you are planning to use the milk right away, freshly expressed milk is good at room temperature for 4-6 hours. If the room is a warmer temperature it is best to discard the milk after 4 hours.

Stored in a sterilised bottle/container in the back of the fridge, the milk is safe for 3-5 days.

Using Frozen Milk

If you don't think you will use your liquid gold within the3-5 day time frame - cool it to room temperature, add a date label and pop in the freezer. By gradually cooling down the milk before freezing you are able to maintain a lot of the natural proteins found in breast milk. Milk pumped within 3-4 hours of each other can be mixed and frozen together. Milk stored in the freezer is good for up to 6 months. If you have a deep freezer, milk can keep for up to a year. 

Once breast milk is frozen, many of the immunological properties it contains are destroyed. These are the same properties that help prevent bacterial growth, which means previously frozen breast milk will go bad faster than freshly expressed breast milk.

When thawing frozen milk the same rules apply from the cooling down process: in order to maintain the composition of breast milk proteins you should gradually heat it. If possible, take the milk out from the freezer and place it in the fridge to thaw overnight. You can use running water to thaw the milk prior to use, gradually increasing the water temperature to warm the milk making sure to massage the bag for an even temperature. Never place breast milk in the microwave to heat up, it de-natures the proteins.

Previously frozen milk can keep in the fridge for up to 24 hours. If a bottle has been heated for a feeding, it can be used withing two hours before discarding.

Can I Refreeze Thawed Milk?

Depending on how cold you keep your fridge/freezer, you may be able to pop the bag back in the freezer. If your breast milk still has ice crystals it is not technically thawed. Milk that has been left in the fridge, but still has ice crystals, is fine to place back in the freezer.

If your milk is completely liquid, however, you can not refreeze it.

Once you know how to properly express and freeze your breast milk, you will need to know how long it will stay good after you take it out of the freezer. So how long will thawed breast milk last?

If you let the breast milk thaw out in the fridge, you can keep it in the fridge up to 24 hours after it has finished thawing. (Note that it can take around 12 hours to thaw depending on how much milk is in the container and how cold your fridge is). If you warmed the thawed breast milk, do not try to hang on to it. Warmed milk is far more likely to have been exposed to bacterial growth.

You can add freshly expressed milk to thawed milk as long as the freshly expressed milk is cooled first and the milk is still used within 24 hours.

If your breast milk ever smells sour or “off”, throw it out. Double-bag your milk if you’re going to be storing it with something that smells strongly, such as peppers, as the breast milk may pick up the strong smell.

Living with low milk supply

 

Parenting is a guilt trap, no matter what you choose to do, or choose to believe, someone out there disagrees with you and thinks you are terrible. Unfortunately, all too often that "someone" is actually ourselves.

We get exhausted at getting up 50 times a night to feed our newborn so we pop them in bed with us, then we feel like we are worst parents ever, risking SIDS like that (when actually, done safely bed sharing reduces SIDS, but that's a post for another day).
We get overwhelmed by the constant "mum, mummy, mum, muuuuum, MMMUUUUMMY" all day and we snap "WHAT, WHAT DO YOU WANT??" Then we chase ourselves around with the guilts the rest of the afternoon for being the most horrible person in the world. It goes on and on, we are really our own worst critics and by far our worst enemy when it comes to beating ourselves up over things. So how hard is it, and how terribly guilt ridden are the mums out there that try desperately to breast feed but truly truly can't?

Breast is best, right? We get it told to us repeatedly, all the time, it's everywhere. What if some times it's not? What if, actually my breastfed baby is starving, thanks to my guilts about using formula, or heaven forbid, a bottle?

It is a common misconception, even in the midwife /infant care/ Plunket world, that everyone can in fact breastfeed fully with the "right support". I'd like to let you all in on some big news: It simply isn't true. There are some of us out there (me included) that no matter what we try, no matter how determined we are, we cannot successfully exclusively breastfeed our children.

The one cause I know about (though there are a few) is Polycycstic Ovarian Syndrome, commonly called PCOS. It is recognised as one of the most common endocrine/metabolic disorders of women. It is suggested up to 12% of the female western population may have this syndrome, though many are undiagnosed and may not have obvious symptoms. Of this group of women, many will have some degree of difficulty getting pregnant. About 1/3 of this 12% will struggle with an over supply of milk (a whole 'nother issue), 1/3 will have no problem whatsoever, and the final third have been shown to have a genuine insufficient milk supply. About 1/3 of those with poor supply (so 1 woman in 100 or there abouts) actually make very little or no milk. No matter what they do, no drugs they take will help. If this is you, its not your fault!!

For me it was the biggest kick in the guts, even though I half expected it (my mother also struggled).  After I found out that I was finally pregnant after 2 1/2 years of trying, I thought "Yay, my body wasn't totally broken!" But after she was born I kept saying to the midwifes, "I don't think shes getting anything, I don't think shes swallowing." They were very reassuring, and helped me with the correct latch, but no one ever said, "You know what, she's not swallowing." Not surprisingly, 3 Days later she was back in hospital, very very jaundiced and very very dehydrated.

So what does help? Regular expressing, a great latch technique, demand feeding and skin to skin cuddles all help get your natural hormones going, for sure. There are some medications that can help, I took Domperidone 4 times a day (doctors prescription) and fenergreek and blessed thistle from the health food shop. It sort of helped, I did end up with some kind of supply after 4 weeks. Increasing the quality fats in your diet helps too, eating coconut oil several times a day and eating real eggs, butter and full fat dairy help: 1) they increase the fat quality and quantity in your milk and 2) contain important base chemicals/fats to help your body make the hormones it needs to function well. They also contain Omega 3 which helps keep post natal depression away!

The best invention ever is the Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) which acts like a straw in a bottle. Baby can get all the amazing benefits of breastfeeding, being close, skin to skin cuddles while also ingesting donor milk or infant formula along side what ever mummy is managing to make on her own.

So dear mummy out there, feel empowered, all is not lost. Do not beat yourself up, you are amazing. You are the best mummy for your baby that there could be. Give your baby cuddles, and lots of them. Let go of the guilt. If your baby is warm, loved, safe, growing and happy, what cause do you have to feel bad? If baby needs formula, then give it to them. If you can source donor milk, all the better, lucky you. But above all else, if baby is hungry, feed it. Life will be much calmer and happier that way.

For more information I suggest you read Dr Jack Newman's website, specifically the parts about increasing supply. He is an amazing man, and he is a Kiwi living in Canada. I emailed him and he graciously gave me a suggested program to follow.