06/26/2026
You do NOT need a freezer full of colostrum before your baby is born. As if we don’t have enough anxiety already about feeding your baby after birth, you don’t need anxiety about feeding your baby before birth either. I’ve had a run of prenatal consultations this month who all were hyper focused on creating colostrum stashes before baby even comes.
I don’t know which pregnant mama needs to hear this today, but you do not need to be harvesting colostrum during pregnancy to be successful at breastfeeding.
Over the last few years, antenatal colostrum collection has gone from being a helpful tool in specific medical situations to something that social media has made many families feel they should be doing.
And for some, that message creates unnecessary stress, anxiety, and self-doubt.
IRL? There is a huge range of what is normal when it comes to seeing colostrum during pregnancy.
Some moms can easily express drops.
Some see quite a bit.
Some see a little and then nothing.
Some never see any at all.
What does that tell us?
Mostly that you’re pregnant.
It does not predict your future milk supply.
It does not predict whether breastfeeding will go well.
And it does not tell us how much milk you’ll make after birth.
I also frequently hear concerns that expressing colostrum during pregnancy might trigger labor. While antenatal hand expression is generally considered safe for low-risk pregnancies when approved by your healthcare provider, it is not a reliable way to start labor. If ni**le stimulation consistently caused labor, it would be used instead of medical inductions (and that’s simply not the case).
What actually triggers lactation and your milk to transition from colostrum to mature milk and increase in volume is the birth of your baby and the delivery of the placenta.
When the placenta detaches, hormone levels shift dramatically and your body receives the signal to begin increasing milk production. Then your baby latches, feeds, and removes milk, telling your body exactly how much milk is needed.
That’s how the system was designed.
In the first 24 hours after birth, babies take very small volumes. Drops to teaspoons to then tablespoons at a time. Through the first several days, we’re often talking teaspoons, not ounces. Frequent feeding, not large volumes, is what helps establish milk production. And we want that colostrum coming from YOU to stimulate production and not the freezer unless medically indicated.
This is one reason why breastfeeding directly at the breast is so important in the early days. Baby’s feeding behavior provides valuable information to your body about how much milk to make.
That doesn’t mean prenatally expressed colostrum is bad. I teach every single mother who comes to me for a prenatal consultation how to hand express while pregnant. It’s always so exciting to see those glistening drops of colostrum and reassure her that SHE HAS MILK!!! You already have milk before your baby is born and it’s ready for them. In fact, it can be incredibly helpful in certain situations, including:
• Babies at higher risk for significant blood sugar challenges, such as babies born to mothers with diabetes or babies who are unusually large or small for gestational age
• Some preterm infants or babies with scheduled inductions between 35-38 weeks where we would anticipated feeding challenges
• Situations involving medically necessary mother-baby separation
• If baby needs supplemented like for jaundice or too much weight loss
• Medical complications like postpartum preeclampsia or a large blood loss after birth that can delay milk transitioning or coming in.
For these families, having colostrum available can be a wonderful tool. But you do not need a freezer full of syringes to prepare for breastfeeding.
What I do love about antenatal hand expression is that it can help mothers learn how their breasts work and build confidence before baby arrives. Learning the skill of hand expression can be empowering and I encourage everyone to know how to hand express.
Just don’t mistake it for a test that social media is setting you up to feel like you’ll fail.Your ability to collect colostrum before birth is not a measure of your future breastfeeding success.
If you want to express colostrum, and your healthcare provider has cleared you to do so, go for it.
If you don’t want to, that’s okay too.
