I'm in the US and most of the employed/student mother's I work with
are lucky if they are returning to work at 3 months and not at 6
weeks. I encounter the mother who needs to pump and feed EBM
regularly. (Our LLL group is also reaching many more of these mother's
than we used to, which is a good thing, so many that we do an
enrichment meeting about working/school and breastfeeding on an as
needed but regular basis.)
I suggest that mother's start pumping about once a day, a month or so
before they return to work, to get accustomed to pumping and view what
they store (frozen in this case) as back-up, emergency supply. I
recommend that they aim to be pumping one day, feeding the next, more
or less, with excess used the day after, generally refrigerating the
EBM. I also talk with them about paced-feeding techniques for
caregivers and educating caregivers about how to bottle-feed the
breastfed baby. I use the storage guidelines from the BAB and LLL
Storing Human Milk information sheet. Room temp 66-72 f up to 10
hours, refrigerated up to 8 days, freezer compartment inside
refrigerator up to 2 weeks, separate freezer compartment 3-4 months,
separate deep freeze, 6 months or longer.
I do make a point of talking specifically about the trap that using
your freezer stash can get you into. We often talk about handling
caregivers, so they don't get to daycare and find that the caregiver
threw out their EBM because it was green,yellow, orange, didn't smell
the same as yesterday, started feeding 4 ounces at 4:45 pm right
before mom arrives and wasted 3 of 4 ounces...
(I could have killed my dd's caregiver the day we arrived at daycare
to be told she threw out my milk because it "looked funny", greenish I
think, she got an earful I'm pretty sure.)
The employed moms I help are generally exclusively breastfeeding while
with their child, so at least 50% (more usually) of feedings are at
the breast, hopefully only 3 maybe 4 feedings are occurring while in a
childcare situation.
All of this said, I ended up purchasing a small chest freezer, because
my refrigerator's freezer was overflowing and I refused to throw away
the EBM. My logic was that if I couldn't supply enough EBM then I
would have to buy ABM and all I would get for that was money down the
drain and nasty diapers, dd is 6 now and the chest freezer now houses
food for the whole family. I'd say it was a worthwhile investment.
Ruth Roazen
LLLL Flagstaff AZ
> Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2007 06:59:30 +1000
> From: Nina Berry <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Breast milk storage
>
> Wendy said, "I am surprised that recommendations for freezing emerge so
> often in these postings." I think this may be a geographical/cultural
> issue. In Australia, it is a rare mother indeed who is exclusively
> expressing and bottlefeeding expressed breastmilk. It is also still
> uncommon for a mother to work full time and to feed her baby predominantly
> expressed breastmilk. Permanent employees have 12m of unpaid maternity leave
> and tend not to return to work until after their babes have started solids
> (by which time many babies will refuse EBM , eat solids, drink a little
> water and 'hang out' 'til mum gets back and they can have their milk with a
> free cuddle. Consequently, mothers who use EBM tend to use it for the
> occasional feed - or for only a few feeds a week - and so the nutrient
> losses associated with freezing are inconsequential.
> The standard recommendation here is that EBM can be stored frozen in a chest
> freezer or simil (-20 degree) for up to 12 months. This recommendation is
> primarily concerned with microbial contamination - since human milk is
> always preferable to non-human milk.
> 'Well behaved women rarely make history' -Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
>
> Nina Berry
> BC (Qualified 2001) Kariong Group, NSW
> Email Counsellor
> Forum Moderator
> Assessor, Doula, Cert IV TAA Candidate
> National Advocacy Manager
> PhD Candidate - "Got Milk? The influence of advertising on attitudes,
> beliefs and perceptions about infant feeding"
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