I am intrigued by the idea(can't remember who suggested it.) of pumping colostrum prenatally and using the expressed colostrum if the baby needed a supplement in the early postpartum---baby unable to latch, baby of a mom who is diabetic, baby is hypoglycemic, has elevated bilirubin, etc. I have some questions and thoughts:

If the mother only pumped or manually expressed each a day for a short period of time, it probably would not stimulate contractions. How long do you think it would be safe to pump?
What would be the best container in which to pump to retrieve the most colostrum?
Would pumping effect the quality of colostrum. I am assuming that colostrum would stay "colostrum" until after delivery.

If we decide that this would be "safe", what about developing a protocol that we could suggest to mothers prenatally? I don't want to "program" mothers to think they will have problems, but don't they suggest that mothers who are having a c/birth donate their own blood prenatally in case they need blood. 

Carol L'Esperance RN, MSN, IBCLC

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