How to Stock Breast Milk

It has now reached the time when you are returning to work.  Can you continue to breastfeed your baby? The answer is yes.  But you need a little of advanced preparation.  You need to stock your breast milk.

To stock the breast milk, you should do alot of stimulating. To do this, you need to breastfeed your baby as often as you can and start pumping the breasts to collect milk.

You can start with baby having one breast and if your baby is content with just one side, then pump the other side for 10-15 minutes and then pump the side that your baby was on for another 5 minutes or so.  Even if your baby takes both sides at one feeding, you can continue to pump each side for 10-15 minutes after the feeding.

Do this with every feeding through out the day. This will help stimulate the milk supply.  You may see only few drops in the first week when you pump. Do not worry. It is not unusal. At this point you want to make sure that your body gets the signal and then produce more milk thus increasing the milk supply.

After one month, you should be able to start your stock of milk.  However, make sure that with every 2-3 hours, you need to either have your baby nursed or pumped. So if your baby wants to be nursed almost every hour in the first few weeks, it is fine. This helps stimulate the milk supply. 

When you go back to work, feed your baby the expressed milk that you have been collecting. While at workplace, try to pump atleast every 3 hours. Make it a schedule. Have your baby on your breasts early morning before you leave for work. At work, you could be pumping at 10 am, 1pm, and 4 pm. Try to breastfeed your baby yourself when you are home to keep the bonding going while increasing the milk supply.

If you want to exclusively feed your child with breast milk, you should inform your boss and colleagues about your plan. It is very important that they understand. Because if you can not pump several times at work, your milk supply is going to be decreased and eventually gone.

At work, you can pump atleast 3-4 sessions collecting atleast 20 oz of milk. Do this everyday, you will have enough milk for your baby. When your baby needs more as he grows, your milk supply will increase at the same time.

However, if you really can not pump 3-4 times at work, there is still a chance that you can continue to breastfeed if you can atleast pump 2 times at work. You can pump early in the morning, 5 am and then at midnight to compensate the other 2 sessions during that day that you can't pump. The body will get the hint to produce more milk at night.

Before you go back to work, you should have atleast 30-40 bags of 2-4 oz of milk stock at home.  At least you have some backup to start with. First few days, you might need a little bit of settling at work. It might affect your milk production.

This is really how the body works. You tell them we need more milk by stimulating and the body gives us more.

Few things you should have ready :

• Breast Pump and its accessories
• cooler with ice to carry back the bottles/bags
• Sterilized milk containers to collect milk
• Breast Pads
• Extra Shirt
• Shawl or feeding blanket for privacy if needed.

It seems tiring and complicated. But it is all worth the benefits and the health of your baby.

PR: wait...  I: wait...  L: wait...  LD: wait...  I: wait... wait...  Rank: wait...  Traffic: wait...  Price: wait...  C: wait...