Proper Storage
Knowing how to store breast milk is essential to ensure its quality, purity, and nutrients, just as your baby receives them when breastfeeding. Follow some important guidelines to express milk the right way, taking the necessary precautions to ensure the milk is fresh and contamination-free.
Besides learning how to store breast milk, we will also talk about how to express milk and also how to freeze breast milk since freezing extends its shelf life. This is a great technique for mothers who have a lot of milk and even want to donate to milk banks if they wish.
Take advantage of all these tips to make sure your little one will be fed with breast milk even when you’re not there. Happy reading!
How to Express Breast Milk
There are many situations when a mother might need to spend some time away from her baby, making it impossible to breastfeed at the correct intervals, usually when the maternity leave ends or in cases of premature babies, for example.
But that does not prevent your baby from continuing to benefit from breast milk. Therefore, knowing how to express and how to store breast milk properly is essential.
Before we explain how to store breast milk, it’s worth emphasizing a few tips on how to express milk correctly. After all, there is no point in knowing how to store milk if you’re not yet good at expressing it.
First, you should know the methods you can use to express breast milk. You can choose to use your hands only or use a breast pump, which can be manual or electric.
Best Time to Express
A good tip is to try to express milk always after your baby has finished breastfeeding. Early in the morning is usually a good time, as breasts tend to be fuller and you might get more milk, allowing you to store a larger amount.
Tips on How to Express Breast Milk
- First of all, wash your hands thoroughly with water and soap;
- Choose a suitable place, very clean, and free of any kind of insects;
- Take off your bra and get into a comfortable position;
- It is important to massage your breasts (with circular movements around the areola) using your fingertips;
- If expressing manually, place a bottle under your breast, apply gentle pressure and express milk in this way (make movements as if milking);
- If using a breast pump, this is what you should hold against the breast from which you’re expressing milk. Be sure to read the instruction manual, especially if it’s electric.
How to Properly Store Breast Milk
After expressing the milk, certain precautions must be taken to keep it fresh and preserve its properties, as well as to avoid any kind of contamination. Hygiene is very important, both for the hands that will be handling the breasts and for the container you will use to store the breast milk.
If you use a breast pump to express the milk, some even come with special containers for storing breast milk, which can also be used for freezing. If that’s not your case, you can store breast milk in baby bottles, the regular ones your baby may already have, but they need to be sterilized and have a well-sealed lid.
Any lidded container that can be sterilized (especially glass ones) can also be used to store breast milk. But remember: what’s most important is always to sterilize, and to respect the correct effective period of use.
Sterilization
The container you’ll use to store breast milk should be washed with neutral detergent. Then, you can boil them in a pan for 10 to 15 minutes. After boiling, remove them directly from the pan and place upside down on a clean cloth or even inside a larger container with a lid. Leave them there until they cool and dry completely, and when you turn them upright, close them immediately.
You can also use microwave sterilizers; in this case, follow the recommended time per model, usually indicated on the packaging. Follow the same drying process as mentioned above.
After sterilizing the containers, you can use them to store breast milk for up to 10 days. Once the milk stored in that container is used, you can reuse it, but specialists recommend that the same container should be used a maximum of 3 times and that before each use, you repeat the entire sterilization process.
Important: After storing breast milk, it should be consumed within 12 hours (if kept in the fridge) or up to 15 days if frozen. Pediatricians also warn that all heated but unused breast milk must be discarded.”
Can You Freeze Breast Milk?
You can indeed freeze breast milk! Freezing is a great option for storing breast milk for a longer period, especially for mothers who need to be away for a longer time or have an abundant amount of milk and don’t want it to go to waste, and it also lets you build a supply to guarantee your baby’s “sustenance.”
But remember: storing frozen breast milk has a shelf life as well. It’s recommended to keep milk in the freezer for a maximum of 15 days. After that, there’s a risk it will lose the properties and nutrients beneficial for your baby.
To thaw the milk for use, remove it from the freezer and place in a bowl of warm water until completely thawed. Do not boil the milk or defrost it in the microwave, as the heat from boiling or a microwave also affects the milk’s quality.
The idea is precisely to store breast milk so that your baby, even in your absence, can keep receiving the best food there is and grow strong and healthy, just as all mothers wish!
See also: Breastfeeding with Fever – In Most Cases It Is Approved by Doctors
Photo: Jengod, Beukbeuk
