All About Pumping Breast Milk

Breastfeeding has been part of human nature for 500 years now according to breastfeeding specialist, Pat Thomas. It is only in the last 60 years that people have begun to give “formulas” for convenience.

Breast milk is better than powdered milk due to its nutritional and anti bodies ingredients, that is why mothers are encourage to keep on giving breast milk to their babies by the World Health Organization. Breastfeeding however is a tiring task, considering babies need to feed every three hours even till the wee hours of the morning. One solution to solve this problem is storing breast milk. When it comes to storing breast milk, here are some tips to make it safe for consumption.

When storing breast milk, you can use a standard baby bottle or a storing breast milk bag. If you want to leave freshly expressed milk at room temperature make sure that you always check your room thermometer. If you want the milk to last for 10 hours, the room temperature should be at 21°C because if the room temperature is at 27 degrees then it would only last until 4 hours. Storing it below 16 degrees Celsius guarantees the shelf life of the milk for more than 24 hours. On the other hand, be reminded that this method of storing breast milk is best for a short period time. If you want to store it for a longer period there are other ways.

Storing breast milk in the refrigerator will make it last for at least five days, make sure that the temperature is at 4°C (39°F). If you are expressing milk more than you used to and plan to keep it for a little while, it’s ideal to keep it in a freezer. It has a shelf life of six months if it is in deep freeze with constant 19 degrees Celsius. If one has a self-defrosting freezer, milk can last for three months as long as you don’t store it from the door. The milk can last only two weeks if it is in the refrigerator so better make space for the freezer.

Storing breast milk properly is important for the safety of your child.