Did you express and save colostrum prior to giving birth?

I had a terrible start to BF with DD, from day 1 in hospital she couldn't attach, had a weak suck, my flat nipples didn't help, by day 3 she had lost more than 10% of her bw and I had to start expressing and giving her top ups via syringe and cup feeding on top of BF's. We had a really rough start with BF'ing and low weight gains (for weeks) that I don't want to go through it again.

My wonderful MCHN who is also my LC discussed with me last visit, about expressing prior to the birth around 36wks pg to save some colostrum for bub.... I have been reading about it and I think I'm going to save some and bring it into hospital. That way I can feed bub extra if and when he/she wants it, on top of frequent BF's.
LC mentioned how lots of bubs get really hungry around day 2/3 when they are waiting for that milk to come in and may be unsettled, this may help. I just don't want a hungry bub this time :( and all the crying and unsettled behaviours that come with that. Although in saying that, I know that unsettled behaviour and some crying can be normal too!
I do know my BF journey will be easier this time around as I know SO much more than I did 2yrs ago!!

I know though to be careful not to overstimulate my nipples as that 'may' bring on early labour?

Wondering, who else did this?
When did you start expressing?
How did you express it? By hand or pump?
What did you store it in?
Did it help even with bub being full term?

I'm thinking I'll hand express into a syringe and then save it. DH works in a hospital (he's an RN) and can get caps for the syringes so thinking I might even store it in one of those? Otherwise EBM freezer bags but they are so big :lol:

I have been able to hand express a fair bit of colostrum since around 24 weeks of pg and although DD seems to have weaned, she now and then has a little suck and takes some colostrum :)

Not sure about expressing before bub is born but I had to express for ds2 when he was born as he was in neo nates. You won't get colostrum out with a pump and if you did I doubt it would even go down into the bottle as it's so thick and syrupy. IMO all that unsettled behavior and continuous feeding was what brought on the milk for me. I had a very difficult labour. Lost lots if blood and they thought I would have a difficult time with my milk but ds2 soon sorted that out lol. I think your plan of hand expressing and storing in a syringe is spot on. That's how I had to do it in neo nates

I pre expressed for my little man knowing he would have to go to SCN for at least a day or so after he was born (ended up being four days and two of those on a drip). I started at 34ish weeks expressing into a syringe and then into the fridge.....you need to use a fresh syinge each time as you can't combine cold colostrum or EBM with warm stuff...but when I had two days worth at frdige temperature I would transfer it all into a specimen jar and name and date the jar then freeze it....you can keep it up to two days in the fridge before freezing so it makes sense to freeze it in batches especially when you will only get a few mls each express..... the specimen jars were the best option for me and I was able to grab a huge handful of them from the midwife as well as a heap of 5ml syringes.

I had Gestational Diabetes so I have expressed and frozen colostrum before baby has been born in my last 3 pregnancies.

Colostrum will only freeze for up to 4 weeks so no point starting too early. On advice from the LC, I started to express at 36 weeks. I did it by pump because I could get about 20ml a day that way, but the LC said it was normal to only get 2ml and most women hand express. She gave me urine jars as they are sterile to use - and they were easy to label with name and date expressed.

Colostrum will last up to 4 days in the fridge so I just expressed a little bit each day for four days and froze it on the fourth day.

Colostrum is very fatty and does not stay frozen for very long so I had to get some of those gel ice packs to wrap around each little jar and pack them into an esky packed in the ice pack to take them to the hospital. When I got to hospital, they had to be put into the freezer immediately.

I didn't end up needing them as I produced enough milk to keep my baby's blood sugars up without anything further but because there was a risk of having lower blood sugars, it was good to have it. Of course, if you don't use it in the first day or two, the colostrum is a bit useless as your milk starts to change after that and your baby needs more than just a few ml. It's a good back up though.

I had trouble breastfeeding my first baby, and although going back to feed a newborn always has it's challenges, I have found that since I know what I am doing, how it works and how it feels, it has gotten easier with every baby. I am also more patient because I know what I am doing so I was able to help baby 2, 3 and 4 learn how to feed where I just got upset with baby number 1. You might find your experience with breastfeeding makes it a little bit easier this time around.

Good luck with everything :)

Thanks to all of your replies :) I appreciate your help. I have collected quite a few syringes 1ml, 3ml and 5ml :)

Just bumping this thread :bump:

My first had a bit of trouble because I had flat nipples due to over engorgement, but I was pleasantly surprised when my second latched on and fed brilliantly from the get-go. Possibly because I wasn't as engorged this time but also because I was more confident I think.

I think it's good that you want to be prepared and it looks like you've had some success with expressing there :)

Great question. I expressed for DD from 37(? trying to remember?) weeks onwards. I wish I'd started earlier as it took me a while to get the hang of hand expressing. I also wish I'd tried the pump cos everyone told me it wouldn't work, but I reckon my boobs love the pump lol - so I should have tried it even once just to see what happened. With my expressing I did it in consultation with obs & LC. Obs was the one who made me wait till later, but in retrospect I was getting so little, and no increase in BH, so it really would have been fine earlier. I went in with 30mlfrozen and as Melbel said, had to keep it well protected. I expressed in syringes then put them into little Decor salad dressing 30ml tubs (BPA free - avail at Safeway). We made sure each "batch" was quite small cos bubs won't be able to take much in a sitting.

Similarly to you, neither of my babies attached properly prior to milk coming in (flat nipples). DD was very keen to feed, but was a disaster without nipple shields (which we couldn't use with colostrum), so I hand expressed all her colostrum. She also went into SCN for blood sugars (me GD+ insulin), and stayed for 2 days. The only only ONLY thing that got her through without top-ups was the expressed colostrum. She was born on the Fri arvo and by Sat night I was hand expressing 2hrly around the clock (we'd used all the expressed colostrum to stabilise her blood sugars). It was hard work (hence wish I'd started expressing earlier). She never went through a really unsettled/screaming stage, but as our paed said, she was actually becoming quite sleepy on the very low volumes (by the Sunday I was only getting .1ml each express). We made it through by a whisker. My fabulous paed backed us up all the way in our efforts to avoid any formula, even with SCN paging him at 3am to suggest she HAD to have FF grrrr.

Interestingly, DD has continued to be an excellent feeder, i just had such trouble with the flat nipples in the colostrum phase. My milk came in a smidge earlier with the expressing which was great, cos I had a C-S plus GD both of which can delay milk coming in. Oh and yes she was full-term (38+5, and a good weight 8lb6). The other thing to remember is to make sure it's really clearly labelled, dated, and your name so there's no potential issues there. We actually both dated, named AND numbered, so I think it was something like 10 batches numbered 1 (oldest) through to 10. You don't want some middie declaring that they think it's too old or something ridiculous.

All the best with it!! Aren't flat nipples just a total PITA!