Expressing and pumping

Hand expressing and pumping will help your milk supply and remove breastmilk from your breasts so you can feed it to your baby. It is best to do this early and often.

Hand expressing and/or pumping should start within one or two hours after giving birth.

Hand expressing

Hand expressing helps stimulate milk production, increases supply and relieves engorgement. If you can, hold your baby skin-to-skin before you hand express.

How to hand express

1. Wash your hands with soap and water.
2. Place a warm moist cloth on the breast and massage gently.
3. Cup your breast in a C- shape. Position the thumb and index finger 1 - 1.5 inches outside the areola.
4. Push back towards your chest. Keep your thumb and fingers cupped in a C- shape around the nipple.
5. Press, compress and release to express your milk. Repeat while moving pressure around the breast to express the entire breast. You can switch hands if you need to.
6. If needed, repeat these steps on the other breast.

Pumping

Pumping will help prepare your breasts for when your baby is ready to breastfeed. It also helps your milk supply.

Your care team will give you a set of breast pump attachments to use at the hospital.

The electrical pump

Pumping record

You can use this table to record pumping times and dates.