Expressing & Pumping Breastmilk
While some mothers might never need to express their breastmilk, these days it is something most breastfeeding women will need or choose to do. Sometimes as part of a management plan to overcome breastfeeding problems, sometimes it is part of returning to paid work, study or other regular or occasional separations of mother and baby.
Using a breast pump can be confronting at first. Because there is no standard design, every product will be slightly different. Choosing the one to buy can be a matter of navigating marketing promises, influencers and opinions!
What to look for in a breast pump:
Double pumping can halve the time spent pumping and double to amount you can collect.
Simple assembly and easy-to-clean parts.
Hospital-grade quality.
How much milk will you express?
Social media has allowed parents to share images and stories about their experience pumping breastmilk. While this is mostly positive, it has led to some mothers feeling inadequate as they compare their results with what they see online. Here’s what you need to know:
How much you express simply shows how much you can express, not how much you can produce.
The average amount collected by expressing both breasts in addition to direct feeding is around 20-50ml combined.
An exclusively expressing mother will have very different volumes to an occasionally expressing mother.
Breast storage capacity, frequency of breastfeeding, stage of day and time since feeding are variables.
Response to a breast pump or hand expressing is individual and can depend on conditions at the time.
What does expressed breast milk look like?
Breastmilk will appear different at different stages of the day, at the beginning or end of a feeding cycle and from person to person. There are many factors which lead to human milk changing in composition and it can look different from feed to feed, day to day and even breast to breast. No two women will produce identical breastmilk.
Milk expressed a short time since the last feed/expression will look creamier than when a longer time has passed.
Milk expressed early in a session will look less creamy to milk expressed as you continue pumping/expressing.
Milk expressed after you finish a breastfeed will be creamier in appearance and lower in volume.
Milk expressed in the first 7-14 days will look more yellow than further on in lactation.
Milk can be coloured by food, drinks, medicines and supplements you consume.
Milk left to stand will separate into layers, with creamier milk rising to the top.
Bottle design has nothing to do with breastmilk volume or quantities and may not be accurate measures anyway.
Infant feeding bottles were designed without any scientific reference to breastfeeding. They are not an indicator of supply or how much a baby should take in a feed. It is normal and natural for babies to take varying amounts from feed to feed across a 24 hour period. Artificially feeding babies on a set schedule of Xml of formula X times a day is necessary as adults need to pace the 24 hour volume of milk across the day.
In Australia, Adjunct Associate-Professor Karleen Gribble from the School of Nursing and Midwifery and her colleagues purchased the entire range of infant feeding bottles available for sale in Australia to assess their measuring accuracy.
Alarmingly, the testers discovered 20% of bottles had at least one marking that was deemed so inaccurate that it would fail to meet the requirements of the European standard: the only existing standard for bottles in the world.
Markings underestimated and overestimated actual volumes by as much as 43%.
A 100ml measurement was actually only 60ml, in one case.
Additionally, two out of five bottles were missing at least one marking for a volume that instructions for reconstituting infant formula require parents to measure. In total, 57% had either inaccurate or missing markings.
“Parents using infant formula are routinely instructed to use the volume markers on the bottles to measure water, but this advice assumes that bottle volume markers are accurate,” says Associate Professor Gribble.
“Unfortunately, our study has shown these markings on many popular products are either incorrect, or missing entirely.”
Don’t measure your milk supply by
how much you can express
Measure your milk supply by
how much your baby puts out
Power Pumping
Power pumping is a technique to stimulate milk production by frequent short burst of pumping. Many mothers pump infrequently because they have been told they must wash and sanitise all their equipment in between each pumping session. This becomes yet another chore to squeeze in between breastfeeding, pumping, supplementing and caring for themselves.
Power pumping works by resting the breast pump right where you are and doing short sessions of pumping between other tasks. The cumulative effect of removing milk frequently is an overall signal to the breasts to produce more milk, while also maximising the fat-rich milk available when the breasts have less downtime between sessions. Just as babies can often tank-up on this milk by frequent feeding we refer to as cluster feeding, this low-volume, high energy milk will make a satisfying top-up as well as boost milk production overall.
You don’t need a calculated schedule to practice power pumping. At a convenient time, set up your breast pump in a central space and sit down to pump both sides for around 10-15 minutes or until you feel the flow of milk slows down. Set the milk collection part of the pump aside and do something else. Make a cup of tea. Load the dishwasher. Fold a basket of laundry. Go outside for some fresh air. Do some meal prep. Write your grocery list. Lie down. After 20 minutes or so, head back to the pump and pick up where you left off. Again, take a break after 10-15 minutes. Repeat the cycle three or four times and then store your milk as you would normally, rinse out the pump parts or wash in hot soapy water if you prefer. Breast milk collection and feeding equipment doesn’t need routine sterilising or disinfecting. You can power pump as many times in a day as you can manage for a couple of days. Continue to breastfeed directly whenever your baby wants to feed. They will also be getting this richer, high-fat milk even if in lower volume than previously - they won’t be complaining about missing out!
You will see this increased stimulation is having an impact on your milk supply in the days following. Combine the technique with hands-on pumping for even more stimulation from milk removal.
