Almost everyone is willing to have some breastmilk stash in the freezer while breastfeeding a baby for many possible cases, so here are the main guidelines for human breastmilk storage. As you see, you don’t need dump your breastmilk if you pumped it or hand expressed it at night and left on the countertop or next to the bed and your partner finds it in the morning and wants to dump it. Extra tip: you can put all washable pump parts in the clean ziploc right after the pumping session and store it in the fridge till the next pumping session while washing those parts only once a day. It’ll save you more night and day hours of your precious sleep!
BREASTMILK STORAGE GUIDELINES
| Countertop or table | Fridge | Freezer with separate door | |
| Storage temperatures | 19-250 C or cooler | 40 C | -180 C or cooler |
| Freshly pumped/expressed breastmilk | Up to 4 hours | Up to 4 days |
Within 6 months is best, up to 12 months is acceptable |
| Thawed breastmilk | 1-2 hours |
Up to 1 day (24 hours) |
Never refreeze breastmilk after it has been thawed |
Please note that these guidelines are for healthy full-term babies and differ from premature or sick babies.
Breast gymnastics
Video credit: Maya Bolman, IBCLC