Breastfeeding Leftovers
You read that right. There are "leftovers" even in the breastfeeding world. This refers to the times when baby might not be getting full feeds and therefore, your breasts still have a full feeling. This means that you may need to express milk for comfort.
These leftovers are the best kind because they are unexpected. This milk can be put away for a rainy day or times that you might be away from your little one.
Pumping after your baby nurses can have advances and disadvantages because the more milk that is removed, allows for more milk to be replaced. Some of the advantages to pumping after your nursing sessions:
Storing milk after baby has been fed
Making sure breasts are empty
In the early day, it helps to create and establish a supply
The disadvantages of pumping after a feeding are:
More work added to being a new mom
Rely on a strict schedule; feed, pump, feed, pump, etc
Potential to create a significant oversupply
Of courses these advantages and disadvantages do not affect everyone the same. It is important to contact a lactation professional if you are questioning anything in your nursing/pumping journey.
BUT the real questions is, what does someone do with "leftovers"? This is to clarify, the leftovers we are talking about have not been in baby's mouth. They have not touched your babies lips. These leftovers are freshly pumped milk that was expressed after your baby has been fed. SO.. what is the milk used for?
Milk that is expressed can be put in the fridge/freezer for a rainy day when following storage guidelines. This milk could be donated. The milk could be used to make other forms of food/nutrition (frozen milk popsicles, oatmeal, etc). And then some..
Now, I want to know if you knew what leftovers were before this discussion? What have you learned after the blog?