Breast Pumps – A Viable Choice For The Working Mothers – Part II

Posted On 06.10.09, In Baby Feeding | Leave a Comment

Breast Milk Storage :

Though pumping milk is the preliminary deed towards nurturing one’s baby, it is merely half of the chore. In several women, the greater issue is the best manner of preserving the milk that has been expressed to avert spoilage prior to being fed to the baby.

According to the National Women’s Health Information Centre, subsequent to pumping milk, it must be swiftly put under refrigeration. If for certain reasons one cannot, then the below stated generalized safety measures need to be adhered to.

In a less than 60 degrees Fahrenheit- cool setting, the milk would remain fresh for close to 24 hours when not refrigerated.
In case of a temperature surge lying between 66-72 degrees Fahrenheit, the milk would stay fresh for close to ten hours.
For temperatures beyond 79 degrees, the breast milk would sustain only for four to six hours.
When the temperatures soar, one would require cold or ice packs in order to maintain the freshness of the milk.

Following refrigeration, breast milk could last for many days, although it is idyllic to utilize it as soon as it has been pumped out. It is believed that the quicker one gives the pumped out milk to the baby, the most reassured one is of its nutritional quotient.

Experts state that working mothers must use the option of pumping milk and freezing it just as an alternative choice as fresh is always the best for the child.

A frozen version of the milk would lower its defensive immune factors by nearly forty percent. Hence, experts counsel mothers to pump that much milk just sufficing for a day’s requirement of milk and storing it in under refrigeration for use the following day for feeding the child.

Though there are few women that are not able to pump milk during work hours. In such situations, it is best to offer the baby the frozen version of the breast milk as it is anytime a superior option that changing to formula feeds.

If there is only occasional use of the pump – for instance, if one might have not been there for a couple of days – then one could also express the milk with one’s hands into a bottle, without the need of a breast pump.