Storage of Breast milk. Working mothers or others who are pumping breastmilk for their infants should store the milk in the cleanest and safest way. It can be stored in any clean container: plastic, glass or breast milk bag.
Room Temperature: Storage of Breast milk for Freshly pumped breast milk. This milk can be kept at room temperature for 8 hours after pumping. If it will need to be kept longer, please refrigerate. Milk that has been previously chilled should be kept at room temperature for no longer than an hour or so.
Refrigerated: Breastmilk may be stored in a refrigerator for three to five days. If you think that you may not use it within that time period, freeze it. You may add “new” breastmilk to breastmilk that has been refrigerated. Chill the “new” milk before adding to already chilled milk. If you find you have milk that has almost reached its expiration date in the refrigerator, you may freeze it for later use.
Frozen: Breastmilk may be stored in a freezer for up to 6 months and in a deep freeze for up to 12 months. The freezer is cold enough if it keeps your ice cream solid. That will be about 0o F or -20o C. It should be placed in a part of the freezer that will not be subject to changes in temperature as the door is opened and closed. If plastic milk bags are used, they should be doubled or protected from being bumped and torn in the freezer. It is best to freeze milk in feeding sized quantities. If you are just starting to pump, you may not yet have an idea of what will be the right size for your baby. Freeze in 80-100ml quantities to start. You don’t want to thaw out more milk than your baby will take in 24 hours. You can always get more if necessary,
Storage of Breast milk: Warming Breastmilk
• Breastmilk can be thawed in a bowl of lukewarm water in just a few minutes or held under lukewarm running water. Then it can be warmed to serving temperature, in the same manner, to just slightly warm using a bowl of warm water or a milk warmer
• Never use a microwave to thaw or warm breastmilk or warm in an open flame eg on a gas cooker
• Any milk left in a bottle after a feeding must be discarded.
• Thawed breastmilk must be discarded after 24 hours. Do not re-freeze it.
Storage of Breast milk: Transporting Breastmilk
If you are pumping breastmilk at work, you should chill it either in a refrigerator or a portable cooler bag. A cooler bag can be used to transport it home. You can also keep it cool by using a thermal bag placed against a cool floor. Studies have shown that freshly pumped breastmilk keeps well at room temperature for several hours (some studies say up to 8 hours) so if chilling your breastmilk is difficult, it can be stored at room temperature for several hours, and then refrigerated as soon as possible.
Note: BPA In light of the recent controversy about BPA contamination of breastmilk leaching from certain kinds of plastic, breastmilk should be stored in glass, polyethelyne (a cloudy type of rigid plastic) or polypropylene (specially designed mother’s milk storage bags) containers rather than polycarbonate containers.
