That's a question I got today from one of the peer counsellors-to-be I am working with:

Since we know that milk ducts do not store the milk, what happens with milk after a milk ejection, if the baby does not want to nurse on the second breast for instance? Does it travel backwards to the alveoli or what?

I know I have seen it mentioned a number of times on the list that there is a bolus of colostrum immediately after the birth which is available if the baby has the opportunity to suck or if it is expressed immediately. And that's not the case some hours later, if you try to express, so there is the possibility that the milk or colostrum goes back deep into the breast somehow. But I wonder if there is a scientific explanation of this process somewhere?

Christina Yaneva
BF Peer Counsellor
Bulgaria

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