08/09/2025
💛 Colostrum 💛
It's your baby's first food and its packed with nutrients, antibodies, growth factors and so much more. Your body will start to produce it in the second trimester of pregnancy and your baby will consume this for the first few days of life until you breastmilk comes in.
It's liquid gold, but why is everyone expressing prenatally, and do you actually need to do it? (Short answer, no.)
'Colostrum harvesting' is a bit of a trend, it's where Mum's express and freeze colostrum before their baby arrives. For some it can be really helpful, for example:
⭐ If you have gestational diabetes, as bub may have unstable blood sugars at birth.
⭐ If you are expecting to be separated from bub after birth.
⭐ If you are really wanting to avoid the potential use of formula for any reason.
But for most Mums, prenatal collection isn’t necessary. Your body will make exactly what your baby needs, when they need it.
For some Mum's trying to collect colostrum is stressful, and it can start the 'low supply' fear early. (Which by the way, colostrum volume doesn't not predict breastmilk production).
Plus we often forget that if we are topping up bub with expressed colostrum or milk we also need to remove that milk from the breast to trigger the supply and demand system.
Your baby doesn’t need syringes of colostrum in the freezer to thrive. They need connection, skin-to-skin, and responsive feeding once they’re here. Your body knows what to do.
And if your ni***es need a break, baby is finding it tricky to latch or there's another reason you need colostrum in the early days you can always hand express like this Mum is an hour or so after birth.
And so I don't get banned: This images is shared for educational purposes in line with Instagram’s Community Guidelines.
