I am almost caught up on two months' worth of Lactnet posts that I missed
while settling in with my newborn (who is delightful, by the way! And
after a wonderful home birth, she lost all of one ounce before beginning
to gain, and gain...). I just read a few posts about hand expression in
the early hours/days postpartum, and have a question for those of you who
frequently help moms with this: How do you advise women to position their
BODIES (not their hands) when hand expressing, so they are physically
comfortable and can still collect their milk without spillage/waste? I
have only hand expressed personally to relieve engorgement, soften breasts
to help a baby latch on, or work on a stubborn plugged duct - never to
collect precious drops of milk to feed a baby. It seems a somewhat messy
procedure, with the early drops of milk running down the breast and not
into a collection container. If I wanted to collect that milk, I feel as
if I would need to lean over, bending from the waist so the milk
(especially colostrum) would make it into spoon/cup/bottle. This would be
very hard on my back!
Esther Grunis described using tiny plastic spoons to gather colostrum to
feed to babies - how and where are the moms positioned to do this? I hope
my question makes sense; as most of the work I currently do (as a LLLL) is
over the phone, and I have practically no experience helping moms BF
immediately postpartum in the hospital, I am struggling with how to
explain this part of hand expression.
Warmly,
Karen Pogge, MD, LLLL - and 24 hour diner
(ps - I calculated the other day that, by the time this baby weans, I will
have nursed my children somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 times.
Sounds like quite a bit, doesn't it?)
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