Breast-feeding your baby can be a lot of fun, especially between the ages of 6 and 12 months. Such pleasure is hard to find at other times of life. But now, even if working mothers aren’t always with their babies, breast pumps are allowing their babies to enjoy the benefits of breast milk. A breast pump is designed to give you a maternal boost by storing the milk in the fridge and then bottling it up.

Find the right breast pump

You can choose from the cheaper manual pump, which costs $15, to the more complex electric or battery pump, which costs $150 or more. But the main selection criteria are personal preference and financial conditions.
“What works for one woman may not work for another, largely based on how much milk you need at a time and how long you need to use the pump,” said Carol Honaly, director of the Breast Milk Information Center at la Leche International.
If you plan to use it for a few months and only for a limited amount of time each day, Ms. Hornaly recommends using the largest professional electric breast pump. It’s bigger and harder to carry around, but it’s fast.
These pumps can be rented at hospitals or breastfeeding centers. Although these breast pumps are designed to absorb breast milk for breast-feeding, they are particularly useful when the baby is premature and cannot pump actively right away.
The latest electric breast pump can pump milk simultaneously and is fast, quiet and easy to use. Although they cost $200 or more, these pumps are portable and especially useful for mothers who need to pump at work.

Proper storage of breast milk

While pumping is the first step in feeding a baby, it’s only half the task. For most mothers, the bigger challenge is preventing sucked breast milk from going bad before it gets fed.
According to experts at the International Women’s Health Information Center, pumped breast milk should be put in the refrigerator immediately. If not, follow these tips:
Store in a cool place – below 60 degrees Fahrenheit – so milk can be stored for at least 24 hours without a refrigerator.
Breast milk stays fresh for at least 10 hours at temperatures between 66 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit.
Breast milk stays fresh for only four to six hours at temperatures higher than 79 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the heat, you need ice to keep breast milk fresh.
Although breast milk is best fed immediately after being sucked out, it can be stored in cold storage for several days. The sooner a child can absorb fresh breast milk, the better its nutritional value.
Experts point out that working mothers use breast pumps and frozen breast milk as a backup, and that fresh breast milk is always the most nutritious. “About 40 percent of protective immune factors are lost when breast milk is refrigerated,” Hornally said.
For women who can’t feed their babies at work, it’s better to give cold breast milk to a baby than to give liquid baby milk. That way you can provide 60% more of the immune factor. If you know you won’t be able to personally feed your baby every day, start refrigerating your breast milk three months before you go back to work.
Breast milk kept in the refrigerator door stays fresh for up to two weeks and in a separate compartment for up to four months. Breast milk can be stored for at least six months in a deep freezer (0 degrees Celsius or below).

Ten tips for extracting and preserving breast milk:

Wash your hands before milking or handling breast milk;
2. Store breast milk in containers with LIDS and plastic bags for medical use, not plastic bags.
3. Remove breast milk that has been refrigerated for over 72 hours;
4. If breast milk is to be refrigerated for 3-6 months, it must be refrigerated at a temperature below 0 degrees Celsius.
5. Try to separate the milk according to the feeding portion, that is, an average of 4-6 pounds per feeding portion;
6. Do not feed refrigerated breast milk with fresh breast milk.
7. Defrost frozen breast milk or place the container in a bowl of warm water before feeding.
8. Do not thaw breast milk in the microwave oven or directly heat breast milk to feed the child, because the uneven distribution of heat can easily burn the child’s mouth. In addition, high temperatures can also destroy some nutrients in breast milk;
9. Do not rerefrigerate breast milk. Dispose of the rest if the child cannot drink the whole amount. Defrosted breast milk should not be reused for 24 hours.
10. Do not store leftover breast milk in used containers or rerefrigerate it for next feeding.