I have been breastfeeding my son since he was born in January. I am fortunate to be blessed with oversupply. I didn't realize what a blessing it was until I joined a Facebook support group for breastfeeding mamas and saw how many were struggling with feeding their babies.
In July 2014 I heard about donating breastmilk. I really didn't know anything about it, but I started looking into it and decided that was something I needed to do. I have since donated over 1,000+ ounces to three different babies.
Pumping is a full time job. I do not pump through the night so I can focus on nursing my little one and getting plenty of sleep... which doesn't always happen anyway, but that's the goal! Sleep is important to milk production.
So... I wanted to share how I store breastmilk for donating. Its been a learning process since day one, but I finally have a system that works pretty well.
Here goes...
Milk storage starts in the fridge. After pumping I pour fresh milk into a large NUK 10oz bottle. If I already have a bottle going, I will pour fresh milk into a separate bottle and mix them once they are the same temperature.
Some days I store my pumps in a ziploc bag between pumping sessions because I know I won't have time to wash them right away before they need to be used again. (I typically pump every 3 hours.) If I store pumps in the fridge they are ALWAYS washed at the end of the day. Usually I wash them throughout the day as much as possible, but this is a quick time saver trick you might find handy. If you do this, make sure to get a new bag for storing the pumps the next day.
Here is a picture of how I label the bags. Date, number of ounces, and the time. If you aren't sure of the time you can do just 'AM' or 'PM'.
I use Lansinoh milk storage bags. I have filled them to the max (13oz. a bag), but that can cause leaking and really isn't practical. I have a full time donor baby so I usually put two bottles worth in one bag. Typically that would be 8oz. in a bag (since baby boy drinks 4oz. in a bottle at a time). I also make up 5oz. bags in the evening with 'night milk'.
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| why yes, that is some homemade baby food in there! |
Once I have the amount of milk I need for a milk storage bag I pour the milk from the bottle in the fridge to the storage bag. I have found that they stack better once they are frozen when the bags are laid flat in the door of the freezer.
Once the milk is frozen, I move it into a freezer ziploc bag. I label the bag ahead of time with the month, year and what it is (breastmilk!). Once I have filled the bag I write the number of ounces total so it's easier to grab exactly what I need when taking a donation to a mama (usually I do 50oz in a ziplock, but they can hold more than that!)
When I am ready to start a new freezer bag I open them up like this. Since 8oz. isn't exactly completely flat I rotate the side the top of the bag is on so that the stack stays pretty even and isn't prone to flop over.
Here's the beginning of a freezer bag.
When storing milk I usually put the oldest milk on the bottom and work my way up as I have more milk available to freeze.
This is what 50oz. of breastmilk looks like. To get exactly 50oz. I usually do 5 8oz. bags of milk, and 2 5oz. bags. This is the easiest way for me to do that since the baby I currently donate to usually drinks 4oz. at a time. Of course you could do all 5oz. bags too. Just play around with it and see what works for you!
You saw what the bag label looked like at the beginning of the process... well here it is at the end. Once I've filled a bag I double check the number of ounces that is in it and then I write the number of ounces on the bag and circle it. This makes it easy to count up how much milk I have in the freezer.
This is what a full freezer bag looks like. You can see how the bags are opposite on every level to help them stack better.
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| Those blueberries were picked from a farm up the road earlier this summer! |
And finally, what my deep freezer looks like! The oldest milk is in the front and the newer milk is in the back. As I take milk out to donate, I move everything forward so it stays fairly organized.
That's all I have for ya! Hopefully some of these tips help you out in storing breastmilk, whether its for yourself or to donate!
