Expressing your breast milk

Expressing milk means extracting milk out of your breasts so you can store it and feed it to your baby later.

You can express breast milk by hand or with an electric or manual pump, whichever is more comfortable for you.

After you've expressed your milk, you can either give it your baby straight away, or store it in the fridge or freezer.

Why express breast milk?

There are various reasons why you may want to express milk, for example:

if your baby is premature or has problems after birth – you may not be able to breastfeed, but they can still have your expressed breast milk
you're returning to work or study
your breasts feel uncomfortably full
your baby isn't able to latch on or suck well
you want to boost your milk supply
when you start introducing solids, you may want to include some breast milk

If you do not need to express your milk straight away, it's best to wait until you and your baby feel happy and confident with breastfeeding before you start expressing milk regularly.