If you are one of many mothers who is planning to return to work or wants to store up extra breast milk for times that you cannot be home, you may be looking for easy and convenient ways to refrigerate or freeze it. How can you build up your milk supply and what is the best way to store it safely?
Evaluating Your Milk Supply
It is best to wait until after the first week or two until your breasts are making a good supply but not overproducing. If you begin pumping large quantities of breast milk when you are already making too much, it can only cause you to continue to overproduce milk.
Once your body has regulated itself to your baby's needs, you might find that a convenient time to pump extra breast milk is from the second breast (or the breast you finished on) since the baby is more likely to have taken less from the second breast. You can also pump from both breasts at the end of each feeding and store that amount for future use. Pumping after each feeding is also a great way to increase your milk supply if you are not making enough milk.