Expressing and storing colostrum: Should or not?

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Hoang Thi Anh Tuyet - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vinmec Central Park International General Hospital.

Colostrum can be considered as the first food that a baby comes into contact with in the first period of life, having an extremely effective effect on the development and health of the child. Therefore, now there are many mothers who want to store more colostrum for their children, so they have to express colostrum right from the time they are pregnant and then freeze it.

Colostrum can be considered a natural vaccine with absolute safety. Mothers are often encouraged to breastfeed their babies in the first few days of life. In colostrum contains some antibodies of the mother, so suckling colostrum will improve the functioning of the digestive system, and help the baby laxative and easily expel the meconium. In addition, colostrum-fed babies will help their bodies increase their resistance to some viral infections, as well as diseases related to the respiratory tract such as pneumonia and bronchitis.
In colostrum also contains a lot of beneficial nutrients for the baby such as zinc, calcium, vitamins A, B6, B12, K for the baby to grow and develop more comprehensively. The cholesterol component in colostrum is also an important nutrient in the development of the nervous system in babies in the early stages of life.

According to some experts, expressing colostrum before giving birth is completely unnecessary, even with the risk of adversely affecting the mother. In fact, the mother's body has already begun to secrete colostrum in the last stages of pregnancy. However, the amount of colostrum in this stage is extremely small and if expressed, it will be very painful and exhausting. After giving birth, the mother's body tends to secrete prolactin to stimulate milk production to fully meet the baby's needs, combined with the baby's sucking to help breast milk secrete regularly and quickly. In addition, expressing colostrum before giving birth can stimulate nipples, increase endogenous oxytocin content, stimulate uterine contractions leading to the risk of premature birth. For those who have had a cesarean section or have placenta previa, it is necessary to be very careful if uterine contractions appear, which can lead to especially dangerous vaginal bleeding. In addition, if you do not know how to store colostrum to ensure factors such as sterility, preservation at the right temperature, colostrum is easily contaminated and denatured. Therefore, in the unfortunate event that children drink improperly preserved milk, it can endanger the child's weak digestive system, causing diarrhea or necrotizing enterocolitis.

Expressing colostrum before giving birth is absolutely not recommended by doctors. However, there are some special cases where the mother is required to do this.
In recent years, manual expression of colostrum before birth has been suggested to be performed in cases of mothers with type 1 diabetes or gestational diabetes. This is because babies born to mothers with one of these conditions have a higher risk of developing low blood sugar at birth or while being exposed to formula. However, there is still controversy in the use of this method regarding the safety, efficacy and nutritional value of colostrum expressed before birth compared with milk produced after birth.
Besides, in some cases, pregnant women do not have enough breast tissue, have polycystic ovary disease, multiple scleroderma, or have a history of breast surgery; or for children diagnosed with conditions such as cleft lip and palate, cardiovascular or neurological defects before birth that may affect the ability to breastfeed; The mother may consider expressing colostrum before birth and storing it for nursing. However, the research on the method of expressing colostrum before birth has a low or incomplete model, so the safety and effectiveness of this method have not been clearly established.
If you decide to express colostrum before giving birth, pregnant women need to be aware of the possibility of preterm birth, especially those with a history of preterm birth, the mother is in the process of being treated for threatened preterm birth, suture of death. bow, placenta previa, available old incision, multiple pregnancy.
Doctors also encourage mothers during pregnancy to actively take care of and gently clean their nipples in order to support effective milk secretion right after birth, instead of trying to express colostrum before giving birth. birth, the job is both unnecessary and dangerous for the mother, should only be done when prescribed by a specialist.