Breast
Pump & Breast Milk Storage
Bottle Feeding Baby Breast Milk
Usually around six weeks after you started breast
feeding or if you’re not comfortable with feeding
your baby in public, you should consider expressing
breast milk to give to your baby by bottle.
Expressing breast milk to give to your baby provides
your partner an opportunity to feed the baby and giving
you some free time. It also help in getting your baby
used to taking the bottle.
Expressing Breast Milk Using Breast
Pump
Breast milk could be expressed by hand but it is
more efficient using a breast pump. Pumping breast
milk will keep your milk production stimulated. Once
breast milk is not emptied regularly, this will send
a signal to your body to stop producing milk.
Using a breast pump to expressed milk is easier and
faster than expressing breast milk manually. Breast
pumps are divided into three categories:
- Manually operated breast pump
- Batteries operated breast pump
- Electric operated breast pump
Electric pumps are easier to use and more effective
than hand pumps. It also stimulates breast milk more
effectively, but it is more expensive than hand pumps.
Regardless of the types of breast pumps you choose,
when purchasing breast pump make sure that all parts
of the pump that will contact the skin or milk can
be removed and clean. Breast pump that are not clean
properly may result in milk contamination.
Breast Milk Storage
Expressed breast milk can be kept in the fridge up
to 24 to 48 hours (depending on the temperature of
the fridge) without loosing much nutritional value.
It can also be stored in a freezer for up to 4 months.
When storing breast milk, be sure to put the date
to indicate when the milk was expressed.
Also, by expressing breast milk to give to your baby
provides your partner an opportunity to feed the baby
and giving you some free time as well as getting your
baby used to taking the bottle.
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