Stocking Up On Breastmilk
When you are a FTWM, you tend to worry about:
- will my milk be enough for my baby when I start work
- how to I start stocking up my milk
- how to store my milk
This guide will provide you information good enough for you to kick-start stocking up your breastmilk, be it preparing to go back to work OR in case you are going for holiday/business trip and you still want your baby to enjoy breastmilk. Even if you are not working, it is always good to have some stock, in case you fall sick (touch wood), then your baby can still drink EBM if you are not able to feed him/her.
Note: This guide is based on personal experience. I don’t hold any responsibility if there are any implications to any Mommy after reading this guide.
When to start stocking up:
It’s never too early to start even when baby is 2-3 weeks old. This is when your milk production is starts to build up as baby will start to suckle more.
What do you need for storing:
At the beginning, you will notice that every session will not be as much as 5-6oz. It will probably come in 1-2oz. So the best way to store is ice-cream bag. This can be purchase from any store which sells plastic bags/containers. Once you get more milk in the session, then you would want to upgrade to milk bags (e.g. Avent, Medela, Playtex milk bag) which can store up to 8oz.
How to start:
Usually when baby is 2-3 weeks, they will take only 2-3 oz of milk (common for most baby, but might not be applicable for all).
Start by letting baby to suckle one side of the breast until it’s empty. If there’s not enough, offer baby the other side of the breast.
Once baby is full, they will go back to sleep.
If your 2nd breast is still not empty, try to express the leftover milk out. It’s OK even if it’s only 1oz, this will actually send signal to your brain telling you more milk required, hence body will produce more.
Another alternative is between the first feed and the next feed, usually there’s interval of 2 hours (again depends on the baby).
When 1 hour comes, express only one side of the breast (the one which baby didn’t empty earlier), but DO NOT empty. By this time, the breast should have more milk and you might be able to get 2oz.
The reason why I don’t empty the breast is I don’t know if 1st breast is enough for baby or not for next feed, so I will leave some milk in 2nd breast for baby to suckle.
Once you have this establish for a few days, you will see that you get engorged more easily and shorter intervals.
Actually, the trick is to send message to the brain that baby needs milk every 1 hour (by expressing in between feed) instead of every 2 hours. With that, you can start building up the stock.
But this is actually very tiring, imagine 1 hour feed, 1 hour express. So once your stock reaches around 20-30oz, move to next phase.
Multi-tasking:
You can start performing feeding and expressing at the same time.
For myself, it’s very weird, one side of the breast is a lazy breast, it only produces 2-3oz, the other side is very hardworking, 6-7oz. This is pretty common.
If you are in same situation as myself, this is what you do:
Before you start, practice holding the breast pump and do some fake pumping by just one hand. Find which side is more comfortable for yourself. You have to make sure your one hand can control the pump by itself (holding it, putting slight pressure on the breast, pumping).
Use your stronger hand for expressing milk, the not so strong hand for carrying baby.
Prepare your breast pump on the table.
Sit on the bed or chair next to the table.
Open up one side of the bra and prepare for pumping session.
On the other hand, hold the baby, and let baby suckle on the other breast.
Once baby start to suckle, take the pump and put in on the other side, and start expressing simultaneously while baby is suckling.
This is not easily achieved, needs some practice and skill. If you are worried baby might fall, use ur legs to help support.
You will find that, let down reflex is superb..you can actually empty both the breast the same time!!
Again, if your baby needs more than just 1 side of the breast, do not empty the breast you are expressing, just express out most of the fore milk, leaving some behind for baby.
Once you are done expressing, place the pump back to the table, and if baby still needs milk, let baby suckle on the 2nd breast.
By performing 2 jobs at one go, it cuts down the time required for pumping after every feeding session.
It also serves as a signal to send to the brain that you are feeding 2 babies instead of 1, cause both side also suckel (fake suckle) at the same time.
So 1 action, serves 2 purpose.
Purpose 1 – feed the baby
Purpose 2 – stocking up
By the time you start work, you should have a good amount of BM in your freezer. At least 200oz maybe , depends how hardworking you are.
2-3 weeks / Start expressing between feeds to boost the supply4-5 weeks / Start multi tasking (feed one side, express one side)
6 weeks / Estimate how much baby drinks each time (read the section below on estimating baby’s milk intake)
7.5-8 weeks / Start giving baby EBM via bottle and start your expressing schedule. Then when you start work, you will have a proper schedule to follow.
Summarizing of when and what to do for breastfeeding
Storing milk:
Beginning, you store in ice cream tubes, 2-3oz maximum.
It will start to get all over the freezer. So organise them into containers and label them properly.
Once each session is more established and you get 4-5oz, store in milk bag, store more and use less space. (3 bags of 5 oz, is better tham 5 bags of 3 oz – this the concept I use)
When you have 8-9oz each session, you can store them in 2 separate bags, 4 oz + 5oz.
When each session is about 6-7oz, you can have the option to store all in 1 bag (bigger milk bag can store 8oz max, but I recommend storing 7 the max as you need to leave some room for freezing. Liquid expands when it’s frozen) OR can split into 2 bags again.
Keeping Stock Level:
Once you start to have some EBM in freezer, you will also want to know what’s the stock level.
I find this is actually a motivator factor for myself. Everyday the stock goes higher, and you are happier and more determined.
Create a stock keeping spreadsheet, print out and put it on the fridge door. Everytime when you add stock, record it as per day entry. At the end of it, total up per day to see how much your yield is. Also have a column for grand total.
Here’s a file I’ve created that you can freely modify and use. I’ve put in sample and comments for ease of understanding. Only for personal use, not for commercial purpose. Copyrights reserved .
Setting goals:
The principle to this is stocking up. So if your baby drinks 20oz a day, you have to set yourself a target to at least pump 21oz.
With that, 1 day 1 oz, 10 days it’s already 10oz. This is how you set your goal.
During maternity, you will be feeding your baby directly. So any milk that is expressed out is considered additional to the existing stock. Set a target for yourself to achieve. I set mine to 4oz a day. By just expressing and storing 4oz a day, by end of maternity leave (say you start expressing only after confinement), you will have 120 oz (4oz x 30 days). That’s a good headstart for you and baby.
You will be able to bring these stock to nanny or MIL or Mom’s house for them to feed the baby.
When you start work, first few weeks, you will still feel very engorged. Stick to a schedule and express whenever possible. I started with 3 times a day, every like 3 hours (10am, 1pm, 4pm).
Once the flow is more establish and your work routine starts to pick up with more work, you can slowly change to 2 times a day, every 4 hours (11am, 4pm). Stick to this for at least after baby is 5 months. This is because, I notice that my milk level drop tremendously when it comes to 4th month. I’m not sure why, it happened with my first baby. So during the time with my 2nd baby, I was very cautious about 4th month. After the 4th month, then I notice the supply is still same as before.
Set a goal how much you need to express each session. This is because you have to make sure you have enough to cover his/her intake at caretaker’s house + stock up.
Say baby drinks 20oz in caretaker’s house.
Say each day you have 3 session. Each session, set a target of 7oz. 3 sessions, 21oz – that’s extra 1 into the stock pile. Of course don’t be too stressed if you can’t meet 20oz cause whatever you bring to caretaker’s house might not be fully finisihed. Read the section on how much milk a day when he’s away to find out more.
Estimating baby’s milk intake:
This is something which I trial and error with my 2nd baby and I find that it works.
When you start to express one side and feed direct one side at the same time, do check while you are expressing everytime you feel let down reflex, how much milk comes out. Say each let down, you get 3 oz. Of course initial let down is usually more milk, and subsequent let down will be less. E.g.
First let down 3oz
Second let down 2oz
Third let down 1 oz
By counting this, the next time when your baby feed, you can estimate how much he/she actually is drinking. If after first let down he/she is full, then you know he more or less takes 3oz.
I find this works very well and this is how I estimate each feed how much he needs and when is the next feed.
How much milk a day when he’s away from you:
Once you know each feed how much he drinks, you will need to bring adequate supply to the caretaker.
Say you leave your house at 8am and goes to pick he/she up at 6pm. That’s 10 hours.
Feed baby before you leave, ideally 7am. Then count the next feed is 10am, 1pm, 4pm (3 hour interval – depending on your own baby’s interval).
If each feed he/she takes 3oz, hence there will be a total of 12 oz per day that you need to bring to caretaker’s house.
On top of it, put in some buffer in case you have to work extra hours, in case he/she has changed her milk intake. I usually put in additional 5-6oz to be on the safe side.
This means you need a total of 18oz a day.
This marks the end of the stocking up breastmilk guide. Happy breastfeeding and may you be one of the successful one. I started off with 2oz, target 4oz a day to add to stock, after 5 months of breastfeeding, I have about 400oz of milk frozen…enough for 1 month supply…now I’m slowing down after working hard for the last few months and I’m really glad that I have a lot of stock for him and I don’t get too worried as well if my supply drops.
One last tip after you start work, even on weekend, make the effort to multitask for 1 session. This is because weekend is where you direct feed, no stock taken out, so if you multitask 1 session, you can add some more stock without taking out.
Any issues that you are having, difficulty to understand the instructions, feel free to drop me an email . I’ll be answering your question ASAP.