Expressing and Storing Breastmilk

You can manually express your breast milk or use a breast pump. Before expressing breastmilk, wash your hands with soap and water for 30 seconds.

Storing Expressed Breastmilk

 
Use a sterilized container to hold your breastmilk. Put the date on the container so you know exactly when it was collected. Make sure to leave some room at the top of the container as breastmilk expands when it freezes. Chill the breastmilk in a fridge or ice packed container for 1 hour before freezing. If you are expressing milk away from home you can store that milk for no more than 24 hours in a gel-packed cooler.

Using frozen breastmilk:

When thawing frozen breastmilk, put it in a container of warm water until thawed or you can put it in the fridge to thaw. If hasn’t been used within 24 hours, throw it away! If you don’t use all of the breastmilk throw the rest away also. Don’t refreeze thawed milk. To warm it, put it in a container of warm water, shake container and test on your wrist before giving it to the baby. The milk shouldn’t feel hot or cold. Never microwave breastmilk in a bottle as it may destroy important nutrients in the breastmilk as well as create hotspots, which can burn a baby’s mouth.

 
Reference: http://www.health.alberta.ca/documents/Breastfeeding.pdf