You can express milk manually with your hands or you can use a recommended breast pump. Breast pumps are used to ease engorged breasts or to collect milk when you are away from your baby (for example, if you are ill or at work). You can also express some extra milk to freeze for use when you are away from your baby for a few hours, when you are back at work or your baby is at child care facility.

Pumping enables you to continue to breastfeed by keeping your milk production stimulated. If milk is not emptied from the breast regularly, it sends a message back to your body to stop making milk. Before buying a breast pump, discuss why you want one with a health professional who is familiar with breast-feeding. 

Before you express milk manually or with breast pump make sure your hands are clean. Wash them well with soap and water. Put expressed breast milk in sterilized bottle or container, label the container and put a date on it. Expressed breast milk will keep in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours. It can be stored for 2 weeks in a freezer inside a refrigerator. It will keep for up to 3 months in the self-contained freezer unit of a refrigerator or for 6 months in a chest freezer. The temperature in these should be cold enough to keep ice cream firm.

Thaw frozen expressed milk in the refrigerator, do not use a microwave to thaw frozen expressed milk. Do not boil breast milk because the protective cells in milk may be damaged. If you need you can quickly thaw frozen expressed milk by placing a container with milk in a container with hot water. 

Breast milk will naturally separate into layers and should be gently mixed before feeding. Throw away milk that is left in the bottle after feeding and clean the bottle immediately.

You can give breast milk by cup, spoon or bottle depending on your baby's age. Bottles and pacifiers are not recommended until breast-feeding is well established. This is usually when your baby is 3 to 4 weeks old.