From the beginning the love and protection you give to your baby are vital for it’s health and wellbeing and nature has provided well. By providing breastmilk, you are offering your baby the very best start in life. There are times though, when it may be necessary or desirable to express milk, for instance if your baby is in special care, you are separated for any reason, maybe you are going back to work or you just need some time away to catch up on sleep or an evening out.

With quality breastpumps now available to make this an effortless and easy procedure, you will be faced with questions about how to store your milk.

There are products to assist you in safe storage such as;

• storage trays,
• bottles,
• milk storage bags

Be sure to follow the guidelines for safe storage of breastmilk and never refreeze previously frozen breastmilk.

Expressing can commence from around 10 days after the birth, although if your baby is in special care you will need to start as soon as possible. Choosing the correct breastpump is important too. For long term, frequent expression (if your baby is not able to go on the breast at all) a hospital grade pump is needed, however if you are only going to express on occasions for a night out for example, a hand held manual pump would suffice.

At around 6 months you will probably start to consider weaning your baby, and expressing and storing breastmilk is ideal at this stage as it can be mixed with baby rice. It is important to store the breast milk correctly, and further information can be obtained from voluntary organisations such as Breastfeeding Network www.breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk

Visit our Breastfeeding Guide on expressing milk