Expressing colostrum - how much?

[Lightning7]

Hi ladies my Midwife asked me at my appointment yesterday to start trying to hand express some colostrum as I have gestational diabetes though not on meds as my numbers have all been good.

I'm currently 37 and a half weeks, and have been leaking since 23 weeks, sometimes quite a lot overnight.

So when I got home I read the kit instructions she gave me which had in it 2 1ml syringes and 2 plastic containers, it says to express into the containers then freeze in the syringes, anyways so I tried expressing and got 12ml out. But now I don't know what to do cause maybe that is too much? Does anyone know how much I will need for the Baby? Should I go and buy a bunch more syringes or just freeze what I have in the 2 syringes and the container and not express any more?

I forgot to ask the midwife how much I need haha and Google isn't being very helpful!

 

[Rhiannon137]

I did this with my second, and figured I should go ahead and get as much as I could. You don't actually need special collection of freezing equipment; it's not like you'll be storing it for months. I found expressing into the 2 oz tubes that come with the Medela Pump worked most easily for me. Anything that will allow you to store it in small quantities (since you'll only want to thaw as much as you need at once) is fine. No harm will come from transferring it later into whatever you will use to feed baby - syringe, bottle, spoon, etc.

As I'm typing this,.I'm honestly imagining an ice cube tray might be perfect to give you single portion cubes. Motherhood really is the mother of all invention!

 

[Lightning7]

I did this with my second, and figured I should go ahead and get as much as I could. You don't actually need special collection of freezing equipment; it's not like you'll be storing it for months. I found expressing into the 2 oz tubes that come with the Medela Pump worked most easily for me. Anything that will allow you to store it in small quantities (since you'll only want to thaw as much as you need at once) is fine. No harm will come from transferring it later into whatever you will use to feed baby - syringe, bottle, spoon, etc.

As I'm typing this,.I'm honestly imagining an ice cube tray might be perfect to give you single portion cubes. Motherhood really is the mother of all invention!

Thank you! I went and bought a half dozen 6ml syringes so I am using those at the moment, I might get some small containers when they are gone

 

[cheerios]

Why do u have to express colostrum with GD? I’ve not heard of that before.

 

[Rhiannon137]

It's sometimes suggested as a way to avoid emergency formula use when they expect baby might have blood sugar problems (like w GD) or latch difficulty (like a preemie, a known heart defect or palate issue). In my case, it was because my milk doesn't let down properly due to past breast surgery, so I have to pump for my babies. Having frozen colostrum on hand gives me some time to get ahead of baby's needs w the pump.