How to Hand Express Breastmilk - REAL footage _ Sarah Lavonne
How to Hand Express Breastmilk - REAL footage _ Sarah Lavonne
Transcript
00:00Hey everyone, I'm Sarah LaVaughn, and welcome back to my YouTube channel.
00:05I am so excited to introduce you to Sarah.
00:08She is a labor and delivery nurse and a midwife, so she's like our perfect person, and she's
00:14also a new mom.
00:15She just had a baby about a month ago, baby Cole.
00:19While he's hanging out in the back room with Justine, I wanted to take advantage of the
00:22fact that she is here.
00:23She is breastfeeding right now, and I wanted to teach you with her breasts, thank you for
00:28being our boob model and sacrificing yourself for all of your learning, to teach you how
00:33to manual express or how to express with your hand some breast milk into a cup, into a spoon,
00:41into something to feed your baby and or boost your milk supply and or relieve some pressure
00:45in your boobs or any other way that you can find that helps you when you manually express.
00:51But before I do that, make sure you subscribe down below, give it a like, make sure you
00:54share it with a friend, and then let's get expressing.
01:04Manual expression is a super helpful skill to know how to do, to kind of have a frame
01:09of reference if you haven't had your baby yet, and then maybe you are breastfeeding
01:13or you're a new mom, it's a great skill to know how to do.
01:16The other thing is, I will say for you nurses, also nurses should know how to manual express.
01:20So why would we manually express the milk?
01:22And all I mean by that is that you take your hand and you actually like milk your own boob
01:27where you can like press on it and you can help to relieve some pressure, so that's one
01:31reason why you would do it.
01:33If your breasts are feeling really engorged and maybe baby's not ready to eat or you're
01:36separated from your baby and you're like, oh my goodness gracious, I'm needing some
01:40relief, you can easily, you always have your hands, which is why I love this skill, is
01:45that you can manually just squeeze out some of the breast milk in order to help take away
01:49some of that pressure.
01:51Especially when your milk volume changes and all of a sudden your breasts are like huge
01:54and trying to figure out how much milk to make, we don't want that milk just sitting
01:59in your breasts without like there being some sort of flow and removing some of that pressure
02:03for very long.
02:04You can end up with clogged milk ducts, you can end up with that engorgement, and then
02:08ultimately mastitis, which is an infection in the breast, which we don't want that to
02:12happen to you.
02:13That's one of the reasons why a lot of people stop breastfeeding.
02:15So we want to prevent all of those issues and one way to do that is to manually express.
02:19Now, if you were separated from your baby, say your baby had to go to the NICU or you
02:25went on a trip or you were working or something, okay, for whatever reason and you don't have
02:30a breast pump or it's the early days in the hospital, one of the ways that I teach manual
02:34expression to nurses is that in the hospital your milk flow isn't very much.
02:39We don't expect much milk until your milk volume changes and you have to tell your body,
02:44Hey, someone's drinking my milk now.
02:46Let's remove it to tell it to make more.
02:49So the first feed, whether you see that with the baby on the breast or not, let's say our
02:54very first feed doesn't have a baby involved and we're manually expressing, we expect drops,
02:59okay?
03:00Like nothing in these little cups and I think when you've seen this context of breastfeeding
03:04moms where they're just like, and you'll see her like just with milk everywhere, that's
03:09not normal initially.
03:11So a lot of the skills of manual expression is nice because you're going to get to save
03:15every last drop from the very beginning when you're in the hospital if you needed to pump.
03:20So that means instead of pumping in the hospital.
03:23My recommendation is to not use a pump until you get like a really strong milk flow because
03:29you're going to end up saving more milk, you're going to, otherwise you end up like losing
03:32some down the pump parts and it's hard when you transfer back and forth between like bottles
03:37and the pump parts and stuff, then you end up losing some of that.
03:40So by manual expressing, you can get every last drop to feed to your baby, which we find
03:45really important.
03:46So when you're prepping to manual express, I keep like waving around all of my supplies
03:51because I have all of my supplies here.
03:52You don't need all of this, but when you're gathering your supplies, you're going to need
03:57something to collect the milk in and I'm holding a spoon here that's really like a plastic
04:01spoon from the cafeteria you can get at the hospital or you have in your house.
04:04And I find the spoon to be most easy for me, but you could also ask for a little medicine
04:09cup.
04:10A lot of the like children's Tylenol or Motrin that you get from the store may come with
04:14a medicine cup like this.
04:15It's super helpful to use or you could even use like a little cup in your house or a shot
04:20glass or like any kind of little cup.
04:23Ideally, it's something easy to maneuver.
04:26And then I do have a syringe here just to make mention that when you're feeding your
04:29baby, it's like crooked, but oh, and now it's broken, but it still works, that when you're
04:34feeding your baby, a one ml syringe is really nice when you're trying to avoid a bottle
04:38early on.
04:39If you want a video on that, that's like opening a whole new can of worms, but let me know
04:42in the comment box down below if you do so you could feed your baby with a syringe.
04:46You could feed them with the cup or you technically could feed them with the spoon.
04:50So instead of transferring to a bottle, which this is like a little version of a bottle
04:55where we'd start off with, you can also get these like double the size.
04:58There's ones that are really fat too, but initially like, let's say, and we're going
05:01to pretend like this is her first day of life that she doesn't have copious amounts of milk,
05:05which she does.
05:06But initially we don't have that much milk volume, so you don't need a huge container.
05:09So you just need something to put it in.
05:12But if you don't have a lot or it is that first feed and you're maybe not putting the
05:15baby to the breast, maybe they're in the NICU or something, you could literally just express
05:19into the spoon and then feed them what's in it and then come back and express and feed
05:23them in it.
05:24So, or let's say also the other thing I forgot was if you're having a hard time latching
05:29your baby, this is a huge one and actually I'm putting it down and you get both hands
05:33for this one because let me preach for a second, okay?
05:36That breastfeeding is a learning curve for you and baby.
05:40And a lot of times that first day of life, babies are really sleepy and families get
05:45very frustrated in that first 24 hours when they're trying to wake their baby and they're
05:49like, on the rest of the day, oh my God, he has to eat and he has to, and I can't get
05:53him on and all of that.
05:55Try for 10 minutes, no more, no more than 10 minutes, okay?
05:58If this baby isn't interested, it's been three, four hours, grab your tools.
06:03You now have an extra skill and manually express your breast milk for 20 minutes, okay?
06:09And then save that and feed that to your baby.
06:12And ideally we're avoiding a bottle because we want them to just learn to suck on the
06:15breast.
06:16Again, whole nother video.
06:18But then you can feed that to the baby to help one, make sure that we're protecting
06:21your milk supply and then two, make sure that we're feeding the baby because those are kind
06:25of our two goals.
06:26So, that's another huge one.
06:28Also, if you have sore nipples, goodness me, there's so many reasons why I didn't know
06:31this, okay?
06:32But if you have sore nipples and you're like, I cannot imagine my baby on my boob for one
06:36more second.
06:37I just need a breather.
06:38Like this thing wants to be on at all times, but you still have to protect your milk supply
06:41and feed your baby.
06:42So, you could manually express for a couple of them.
06:45You're still removing the milk.
06:46Feed that to the baby with the spoon, the syringe, or the cup, and then bring the baby
06:50to the breast once you kind of have a breather on your nipples, okay?
06:54Moral of the story is, this is a very important skill to know how to do.
06:58This makes perfect, and so I'm going to show you actually how to do it now, but you're
07:01collecting your supplies.
07:02You need something to like scoop the milk into.
07:05The other thing is, and you can do this with the breast exposed or not, but you want to
07:09start by just giving them a little bit of a massage.
07:11We want to loosen up all that milk in there.
07:13We want to really like warm them up.
07:15If you want to put on heat packs, you can.
07:18And the hospital typically does have, at least in the United States, does have warm packs
07:22where you can ask.
07:23They crack and they last for like 15 minutes and you just put them on.
07:25You can even massage through that, but we want to start like getting them ready.
07:29We want to prime them up and get them nice and juicy for your spoon or your cup or your
07:33baby or whoever, okay?
07:35And then when you get to be ready, my hands are clean.
07:37I washed them before here.
07:38I would have you do this, but sometimes your nurse may be able to help you and I'm going
07:42to step in and actually show you how to do it.
07:44And I probably will use the spoon because I find it the most helpful, but you could
07:48use any of the above.
07:49So what we would do is we're going to find the areola and you want your hand in a C shape.
07:56So I'm going to come in, my fingers are going to be outside the areola and that's important
08:00because a lot of people want to pinch the nipple and that worked for her because she's
08:03amazing.
08:04But a lot of people want to pinch the nipple and honestly that just ends up potentially
08:08traumatizing the nipple and then it may, you're not going to get as much milk because think
08:13of the nipple as the door, not like where the milk stash is.
08:17So all the milk is going to be back here.
08:20So I want to kind of stimulate back here and my hands are wider than the areola, unless
08:24your areola was like half the size of your breasts and some women they are.
08:28So you just want your hand wide.
08:29So then a lot of people are going to pull this way and you can do that if it works for
08:35you.
08:36But what we risk then is, is you're really pulling on the skin and breaking down the
08:39tissue causing more stretch marks, potentially everyone cares about that.
08:41Not everybody, but a lot of people do.
08:43So your hands are wide.
08:44We're going to press in.
08:46I'm going to have something to catch it and I'm going to try not to squirt like the camera
08:49across the way, but I'm just going to squeeze towards the nipple and there it comes.
08:54So it's dripping out.
08:55That's the other thing that I will say is, is that that gave me like six drops.
08:59I'm going to let the breast fill, I'm going to squeeze towards and I'm going to hold.
09:04That's the other, that's what I was going to say and I actually forgot to say earlier
09:07was that when you hold, what happens is it keeps dripping and then you let go.
09:12The other thing is I'm squeezing from different angles because imagine there's milk in her
09:17entire breast.
09:19So if I'm squeezing here, I'm really just squeezing on this, but if I move my hand,
09:23I'm getting other areas of the breast where the milk is.
09:26So I want to press in, squeeze, hold, press in, squeeze, hold, press in, squeeze, hold
09:34and squirt the world.
09:36Okay.
09:37So, and that in, and I don't have to move my hand every single time.
09:40I can stay in the same spot because once I get the milk flowing, then it's going to
09:44start going.
09:45But also for, for a new mom or even for her, she just breastfed not too long ago, you may
09:50need to stimulate the let down as well.
09:53So that's the other thing that like, you may want to pump a little bit, um, and start to
09:59say, Hey body, let the milk out.
10:01Right.
10:02And then you can go in and squeeze, in and squeeze, in and squeeze, and you're getting
10:09milk every single time.
10:10Rotate your hand and you've already pumped to let down the reflex to get it coming there,
10:16there, there, there.
10:20And then with my spoon, I'm scooping from the bottom and notice I really have my, my
10:25spoon against the side of her breast.
10:27If, and then you're going to dump it into your bottle when you have extra, cause easily
10:31like, oops, we just did that.
10:33Like it squirts everywhere.
10:34If I had a cup or even she could manually express it.
10:37This is all you have.
10:38This is enough.
10:39I can just put that up underneath.
10:41So it catches it.
10:42I'm going to squeeze and drip, squeeze, squeeze, hold.
10:51And then notice there's like milk underneath.
10:53So I'm going to scoop it up from there and then save our little milk.
10:58Thanks everyone for being with me here today.
11:00Thank you, Sarah, for volunteering your body and your lactating breasts for all of us to
11:04learn from.
11:06We're so grateful to her and I'm so grateful for you guys for being here and for listening
11:09and for caring and for learning.
11:10I hope you found this super helpful.
11:13Let me know your experience with breastfeeding down below.
11:15Let me know if you've tried manual expression.
11:17The other thing I will say is, is that a lot of mamas try to manually express prior to
11:22baby being born, which is totally fine if you want to try to harvest the milk you can,
11:27but we are not expecting to see any milk until after baby is born.
11:32If you have some, hallelujah, bonus points for you.
11:35But there's nothing wrong with you if you're not seeing milk until the baby's born.
11:39It's still in there.
11:40It's just that the placenta has to be delivered before your body tells your boobs to like,
11:45oh, let the milk out.
11:46And then we need sucking.
11:47The sucking is what's going to stimulate that let down and for the milk to be released.
11:51So no stress if you don't see any milk prior to that.
11:53If you want more from me, you can head on over to my website at bundlebirth.com.
11:57Something that I do other ways, if you're a nurse, this is sort of a piece of what we
12:03do for Bundle Birth Nurses Mentorship.
12:05We have an entire month where we talk through all the things of breastfeeding that you are
12:08not taught on your orientations or even maybe even at the bedside.
12:12And so that's just one of 12 months.
12:14So you can hit up the description box down below at bundlebirth.com.
12:18Everything is over there.
12:19Make sure you follow me on Instagram.
12:21Make sure you subscribe down below.
12:23Let me know what you found to be the most helpful tip that you found in this video.
12:27And then until next time, don't forget to flex and flow and I will see you soon.
12:32Bye.
12:33Bye.