Breastmilk Storage
By: Josephine Munene, Community Engagement Director & Lactation Educator
Now that we’ve gone through the basics of expressing breast milk, it’s important to also know how to store and thaw the milk so that it is safe for use by your baby immediately, the next day or even after a few weeks.
The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine recommends using the following guidelines for storing breastmilk for healthy term babies. This is the optimal way of ensuring that all the important nutrients are preserved and bacterial contamination is minimised.
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Therefore, if you’re a working mum or away from home and your baby for a long period of time and you’ve expressed during the course of the day, you can either store your expressed breast milk (EBM) in a refrigerator or if you don’t have access to one, you can use an insulated cooler bag with ice packs. This is especially important if you’re likely to take a while before getting home to refrigerate the milk or to feed it to your baby.
Some insulated cooler bags come with their own ice pack(s), which only need to be placed in a freezer then removed as and when required for use without the need to add water to the pack. These tend to be less messy than “home-made” ice packs because when they begin to defrost, they won’t leave pools of water or spill out.
However, if you’re unable to find an insulated cooler bag with ice packs or if they’re too expensive, you can still buy a basic cooler/thermal lunch bag and make your own ice pack using zip-lock bags which you then add water to and freeze.
When you’re ready to leave the house for work in the morning, remove the now frozen ice pack, place it in the cooler bag and it should still be frozen once you’re ready to store your EBM in the bag.
Tips for Freezing and Thawing Expressed Breastmilk
AVOID filling bottles/bags more than ¾ full to allow space for possible expansion.
Label the bottle/bag with the date you expressed the milk.
AVOID storing breastmilk in the refrigerator door, instead store it in the lower back area of the refrigerator, where the temperature is coolest and more consistent.
Expressed breastmilk can be used straight from the fridge or it can be warmed gently by placing the bottle or bag in warm water (max.37° C) to take the chill off. Take care not to over warm and be sure to use defrosted milk immediately.
Thaw frozen breast milk in the refrigerator overnight and use the milk within 24 hours of thawing it.
You can also thaw/defrost the milk quickly by placing the bottle or bag in warm water (max. 37° C).
AVOID thawing frozen breastmilk in a microwave oven or in a pan of boiling water (danger of burning) because microwaves do not heat evenly and exposure to high temperature can destroy the nutrients and antibodies in the expressed breast milk.
USE DEFROSTED MILK IMMEDIATELY in order to avoid contamination.
LEFTOVER BREAST MILK from a feed should be used within 1 -2 hours after the baby is finished feeding. If you are afraid of wastage, store your expressed breast milk in smaller quantities.