# pumping and saving colostrum before baby is born?



## goldrose (Jan 14, 2003)

Anybody heard of such an idea? Can I pump and save (freeze?) colostrum before the baby is born, or, perhaps, add it to some of the food dd#1 eats? It disappears so quickly after birth, but if I pump it now, it will replenish again before birth!


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## Elphaba (Nov 19, 2001)

the colostrum you see pre-birth is not the same as the post-birth stuff. after the baby is born, it changes to the wonder stuff full of immunities. the pre-birth stuff doesn't have the same value, so there wouldn't be any point in pumping it and storing it.


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## goldrose (Jan 14, 2003)

oh, interesting. where do you know that from?


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## Elphaba (Nov 19, 2001)

oh boy! i've got about a dozen books pertaining to breastfeeding, so give me a bit to find which one it was in, okay? though i bet DaryLLL will know, and she'll tell me if i am wrong, too!
i'll be back!


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## Mallory (Jan 2, 2002)

Clostrum doesn't just dissapear when your milk comes in either. For the first few weeks you are producing some clostrum at the beggining of feedings.

I also have always though that the real amazing living cells are not going to live through the slow freezing and unfreezing that happen in your home freezers.


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## AmyG (Jan 30, 2002)

I'd also be afraid of going into labor. It's okay to nurse while pregnant, but people use breast pumps to induce labor.

I don't know about the composition of pre-birth colostrum, but it's in such minute amounts that I don't think you'd get enough to even freeze. I pumped after DS was born because he was a sleepy preemie and I needed more stimulation so I didn't lose my supply, and I hardly ever got anything at all. However, I do know that I still had a lot of colostrum after my milk came in. You could see the color of the milk change dramatically over the first 2 weeks. It started out as a very creamy, almost yellow color and then thinned to the lighter, almost blue color that you're used to seeing.


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## wombat (Nov 3, 2002)

I'm not sure it's possible or practical but I think fresh is best. Like any food, it deteriorates with storage and I imagine you'd lose the 'up to date' antibodies. I mean, if you pumped it several weeks ago, then caught a cold, that pumped milk wouldn't have those new antibodies to that cold and wouldn't protect baby against that particular cold virus, kwim? I think just trust your body to produce just what your baby needs when the time comes. BTW my milk was yellow for about 4 weeks so your body just doesn't stop producing it straight away - I think it's a gradual process. If you wanna do some pumping, might be better when/if you get engorged.


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## Quirky (Jun 18, 2002)

I wouldn't do it, personally, not only because of the fears of triggering labor but also because your body tailors milk for your baby perfectly at each stage. So your baby needs colostrum when s/he is born, but then needs something different at 1 month, 2 months, etc. And milk is always full of antibodies and immune factors, no matter what the age of the baby.

Also, if you bf exclusively (ie no solids) for 6 months as per the recommendations, any frozen colostrum would be past its shelf life of six months in the deep freeze by the time you wanted to add it to food.

Interesting question, though!


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## goldrose (Jan 14, 2003)

I meant to mix the colostrum into my first daughter's food - now. Not in the new baby's food.


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