Many women find that breastfeeding should be periodically emptied for good breastfeeding. In fact, this is not so. But there are situations when breastfeeding is difficult or even impossible. In such cases, mom may resort to expressing milk. This procedure is used by many women who, for various reasons, are unable to breastfeed. But at the same time, they all want to preserve the most important thing for the baby - breast milk.
Returning home from the hospital, a woman should know how to express breast milk and in what cases it should be done. Scientists have proven that expressing milk is the prevention of lactose. Also due to this process, the amount of milk in the mammary glands increases.
Specialists in breastfeeding are advised to resort to pumping only when it is really necessary.
Cases in which there is a need for expressing breast milk:
Women who apply the baby to the breast at his request should not express milk, as their body produces as much milk as the baby needs.
Today, several methods of pumping have been developed:
Manual pumping
Many women are faced with a similar procedure, but not everyone knows how to express milk by hand.
Manual pumping is a very laborious, painful procedure, but effective and very reliable. Expressing milk by hand should take twenty or thirty minutes. Milk must be pumped into a cup, which must first be washed with soap and doused with boiling water.
Before this procedure, you need to relax, this will stimulate the production of oxytocin. You can drink a glass of warm tea or milk. Then you should massage your chest for five minutes. In the process of expressing it is better to be near the baby or with things that are associated with it. The chest must be held with the thumb and forefinger so that the thumb is above the areola, and the index is slightly lower. Other fingers should support the chest.
Expressing milk with a breast pump
In some cases, expressing breast milk is necessary using a special device - a breast pump. Currently, there are manual and electric breast pumps . The most convenient and effective are electric breast pumps. They allow you to stimulate lactation, prevent and treat all disorders that occur during breastfeeding.
Expressing milk with a breast pump is carried out immediately after feeding the baby, since the breast should be filled with large quantities of breast milk before the next feeding.
Expression using the “warm bottle” method
Expressing milk using the “warm bottle” method can be used if the breast is swollen and very sore. For this method of decantation, you need to take a bottle, the neck of which should be wide, about 3 cm in diameter. Hot water should be poured into it and left for several minutes so that the bottle warms up well. After the container heats up, it is necessary to pour out water and cool only the neck of the bottle, and then attach it to the nipple. It should fit snugly against it. At this point, milk should stand out, after which you need to remove the bottle and begin manual pumping.
In most cases, milk obtained by decantation can feed the baby. At the same time, it should be stored in special containers or bottles made of plastic. At room temperature, expressed milk should be stored for twelve hours, and in the refrigerator for two days.