Colostrum is much different than mature breast milk. This is what comes before your breast milk comes in! (breast milk comes in around 2-3 days postpartum).
Some pregnant women begin to leak before giving birth to your baby, and when this happens, it’s colostrum coming out!
What Are The Benefits of Colostrum?
This thick, liquid gold contains:
- High protein content
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Higher cortisol compared to mature breast milk. This promotes alertness.
- Remarkably high numbers of immunoglobulin G (an antibody which helps stimulate the immune system)
- Growth hormones, which help repair damaged cells
- Prebiotics which contribute to a healthy microflora in the gut
- High epidermal growth factor content which increases the number of intestinal cells lining the intestinal mucosa and epithelium to strengthen the barrier against antigens that may try to invade the intestines.
- High peptide content, which have antibacterial and antiviral effects. This means that this liquid gold helps destroy, inhibit, and fight against harmful pathogenic (disease-causing) organisms and viruses.
- High concentrations of insulin-like growth factor which plays a role in promoting optimal growth.
When Should You Start Collecting Colostrum?
First, remember that leaking or the ability to express colostrum is not an indicator of an adequate milk supply postpartum, so don’t worry if you aren’t able to collect any! Additionally, if you begin leaking during pregnancy, this isn’t an indication of an oversupply either.
Check out these amazing tips to start in your third trimester to encourage healthy lactation!
Also, collecting colostrum is also not something you have to do in any way! If you don’t collect it, your baby will still receive colostrum for the first 2-3 days of life while breastfeeding.
However, if you’re actively leaking, I recommend using the Haakaa Silicone Milk Collectors to easily collect your colostrum if you’d like to store it for later use! This can be especially beneficial if you plan on having an epidural or a cesarean birth as these things may cause a delay in your more voluminous breast milk coming in.
After you collect some in the milk collectors, use a sterile syringe to collect and store it, or you can store 1-2oz in a breast milk storage bag or container and freeze it until needed.
If you are not actively leaking, but you’re at 37 weeks or more, then you can ask your health care provider if you can start hand expressing.
Prior to 37 weeks, hand expression isn’t typically recommended as it increases oxytocin which is the hormone that causes uterine contractions.
How to Harvest Colostrum:
- First get warm and relaxed. Many women find that they can express the most colostrum in a warm bath or shower.
- Ensure your hands are clean.
- Grab your food-grade 1 mL syringe and a medicine cup or a spoon.
- Gently massage around your breast then make a C-shape around your areola.
- Next, gently push back on your breast, then squeeze, pushing your nipple forward and out slightly.
- Continue this on one breast for 3 minutes. Then, do 3 minutes on the other breast.
- Return to the first breast you started with and continue hand expressing for 2 minutes. Then, 2 minutes on the other side. Then 1 minute on each side. Finally, that is all for this session.
- When the dripping stops, gently massage your breast again and reposition your fingers from being in line with your nipple to diagonally to either side to potentially help you express more.
When you notice colostrum coming out, this is when you collect it in the medicine cup or spoon, then collect it in the syringe from there.
Put your filled syringes in a gallon-size zip loc bag to store them in the freezer until you need to defrost a couple at a time for use the next day.
*You can repeat this process up to 3x per day.
Remember that only getting a few drops at a time is excellent! For more information on hand expressing breast milk, check out: How to Hand Express Breast Milk and Why You Should!
And be sure to hand express only! Do not use a breast pump! It’s actually more effective to hand express colostrum since it is thick and sticky.
Breast Milk Storage Cheatsheet
Storing colostrum follows the same guidelines as any other breast milk. Additionally, like other stages of breast milk, you can add multiple sessions to the same syringe as long as you’re following the rules below.
In The Balanced Breastfeeding Course, you receive the Birthing Balance Breast Milk Storage Safety Guide that you can easily put on your fridge so that you never forget how long your breast milk can be at room temperature, in the fridge, freezer, or how long you can use it once it’s defrosted!
How to Feed Your Baby Colostrum
- Defrost colostrum by putting it in the refrigerator. This will take about 12 hours for the colostrum to defrost. After defrosting it’s good in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
- Once defrosted, put the colostrum on a baby spoon and feed right to your baby. If you have enough for another small spoonful, but your baby doesn’t want it, just try again in another 30 minutes- 1 hour.
- Try to use it within 2 hours of the colostrum being defrosted because once it’s been 2 hours at room temperature, it’s not considered good anymore.
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DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding you or your baby’s health. Please read my Medical Disclaimer for more info
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