
Trying for a baby	Pregnant	Birth & labour	Baby	Toddler

Pumping and expressing milk

If you need to leave your baby with other people, even if that situation seems far in the future, it is definitely worth getting used to expressing your breast milk. Expressing milk just describes the process by which you take milk out of your breasts to put in a bottle for your baby.

This means that you will be able to leave your baby for a longer period than just the few hours in between feeds: an essential tool if you plan on going back to work in the early months with a new baby. To this end, introducing your baby to a bottle, if you are breastfeeding is actually a good idea. It is not recommended you start expressing until you have established a good breastfeeding routine with your baby, possibly around the age of six weeks.

Make sure all necessary equipment is sterilised properly (watch Sterilising your feeding equipment) and express some milk. Wait until your baby is hungry for a feed before trying to give her the bottle. If you put some of your breast milk on the teat, she will probably accept it. If she takes a dummy, that may also make things a little easier. If you are having problems getting your baby to take a bottle as a breastfeeding mother, seek help from your health visitor.

How to Express Breast Milk:
It is recommended that women express milk directly following a feed, in order that your breasts have time to replenish their supplies. You may find you have most milk in the morning, and find that a good time to express, but you will obviously need to find out what suits you and your busy routine best. If you don’t seem to have much milk in your breasts after a feed, just try later. The essential thing is to relax and not worry too much as your body will respond accordingly.

If you are not going to be expressing milk frequently, you may want to try expressing by hand, a cheaper, yet sometimes slightly trickier method. Warm your breasts first - have a bath or put a warm flannel over them – then massage them a little before you begin. This will make hand expressing a little easier.

The idea is to stimulate your ‘let-down reflex’, the reflex that lets your body know it is time for your baby to feed and your milk to start flowing. If you are having difficulty, try thinking about your baby, or you can even try looking at some pictures of her.

Next, try squeezing and releasing the areola behind the nipple. You should see milk appear on your nipples, which, if you lean forward and continue to squeeze, will squirt out in jets. Don’t worry if it doesn’t seem like you are getting much milk. It may be your breasts are quite empty or you might just have a slow flow. Use a sterile bottle or container to fill.

Even if you manage only a little, you can always come back later to try a bit more. Do change breasts, especially if your flow seems slow on one side, it may be that one breast is carrying more milk. Little and often is the advice offered by the National Childbirth Trust, who recommend expressing every three hours for ten minutes, aiming for a total of six to eight sessions over 24 hours.

If hand expressing doesn’t appeal to you, or you are finding it difficult, you will most likely find that using an electric breast pump is the answer to your problems. You can hire these from the National Childbirth Trust, or, if you are planning on using it a lot or having more children, you may just want to purchase one to keep. You can buy these at all good chemists or baby shops.

These breast pumps have detailed instructions demonstrating how to assemble the parts and how to position the pump on your breast. It should not be painful if you are doing it properly and it is important you read the equipment notes carefully. As it was in the beginning, when first breastfeeding your baby, positioning is everything. If you are having difficulties, seek help from a health visitor or breastfeeding counsellor.

If you have any unanswered questions, use our feeding and food or guide to baby area of our chat page to gain wisdom from other mums or our resident experts for all those pregnancy or baby-related niggles.

See our video on how to pump and express milk for a guide to this process.