Preparing for Breastfeeding Before Baby Arrives
This blog is written by Lauren Brenton from One Mama Midwife
If there's one thing I tell every couple in my antenatal classes, it's that breastfeeding preparation doesn't start in the hospital room, it starts weeks before in late pregnancy. And the research backs this up again and again.
So, let's talk about what the evidence actually says about getting ready to breastfeed, because even though it may seem “natural”, it is very much a learnt skill. Preparation will not only help you feel more confident, it will help you maximise your experience right from the start.
A study by Stein, Dixon and Burns (2025) asked Australian women what their antenatal breastfeeding education was actually like. Many women described feeling like they'd been given a "rosy view" of breastfeeding, only to find the reality far harder than expected. Where breastfeeding was covered in classes, it was often inconsistent: the benefits and skin-to-skin contact were talked about often, but the actual how (positioning, attachment, what a good latch feels like, what's normal versus what's not) was frequently missing.
The women who did feel prepared pointed to the same three things:
- a skilled, knowledgeable educator,
- practical hands-on technique, not just theory, and
- honest information about the challenges not just the highlight reel.
Confidence comes from knowing what to actually do when your baby is on your chest, everything is a little tender and nothing feels natural yet.
Antenatal Education Changes Outcomes, Not Just Confidence
It's not just about how prepared you feel, either. An Australian observational study out of Sydney (Shand et al., 2022) followed women through pregnancy, birth, and beyond, linking antenatal class attendance with actual birth and feeding outcomes. Structured antenatal education was associated with better outcomes and higher satisfaction reinforcing that this isn't a "nice to have" add-on to your pregnancy, it's a genuine piece of clinical preparation.
Colostrum Collecting
One of the most well-researched pieces of antenatal breastfeeding preparation is something most first-time parents have never heard of until they’re asked if they’ve started and that is antenatal colostrum expression. This is hand expressing and storing your colostrum (that thick, golden first milk) from around 37 weeks in the pregnancy.
This is backed by one of the largest Australian midwifery-led trials in this space called the DAME trial (Diabetes and Antenatal Milk Expressing). Originally designed for women with diabetes in pregnancy, the trial found that babies whose mothers expressed colostrum antenatally were less likely to need formula supplementation in their first 24 hours, with no evidence of harm and no increase in preterm birth or NICU admission.
Follow-up qualitative work from the same research team explored how women experienced the process and unsurprisingly, having the right technique and the right equipment mattered. Fumbling around trying to collect drops of precious colostrum onto a spoon (yes, this is genuinely how some people are taught to do it) is fiddly, frustrating and puts people off continuing. This is where a proper colostrum collection kit with Silicone Colostrum Collectors from Haakaa makes the process so much less stressful, and far more likely to actually happen consistently. It's a small, practical upgrade for a technique that's been shown to matter.
Since then, Australian researchers (Cuffe et al., 2024, in a multi-site stepped-wedge trial) have been extending this research beyond diabetic pregnancies, to understand whether structured colostrum expression education benefits first-time mothers more broadly, recognising that the skill of hand expression, learned before birth, is invaluable in breastfeeding regardless if you have diabetes or not.
The Australian Breastfeeding Association now recommends this as something worth discussing with your midwife or obstetrician from around 37 weeks, particularly if you're at higher risk of baby needing to go to a special care nursery or NICU or needing extra supplementation with feed.
As a midwife, I recommend all parents without risk factors in their pregnancy to practice the correct technique in our classes with the Haakaa Colostrum Collectors and a demo breast so that they can learn this skill, whether they decide to use it or not.
So, What Does Preparing Look Like?
Based on what the research consistently shows, real antenatal breastfeeding preparation comes down to a few things:
- Learning how the breast and breastfeeding works before birth, including positioning, attachment and hand expression. Taught and practised (not just watched), by a skilled midwife educator who will talk openly about breastfeeding.
- Practising antenatal colostrum expression from around 37 weeks, if suitable for your pregnancy with a proper collection kit of Haakaa Colostrum Collectors on hand so the process is simple enough that you'll actually stick with it.
- Understanding what's normal in the early days. This includes cluster feeding, engorgement, and the fact that your milk "coming in" is a process that takes time from you and your baby.
- Having the right equipment ready before day one, not scrambling to buy it postpartum. This is where a Haakaa Ladybug Milk Collector in the hospital bag can be helpful to catch letdown or leaking milk on the other side while feeding, so that liquid gold doesn't just soak into a nursing pad and go to waste. That way if baby does need extra milk for feeds, you have it ready to go. It's not essential, but it's one of those small preparations that makes the first few weeks feel a little less chaotic.
The research is clear that breastfeeding preparation before baby arrives measurably changes outcomes not just how confident you feel, but it can also impact how likely your baby is to need formula supplementation in the first day of life.
If you want to learn hand expression properly, work through positioning and attachment hands-on, and get the honest make sure to book a One Mama Midwife Antenatal Class.
Remember to always ask your healthcare team if Antenatal Colostrum Collecting is safe for you in your current pregnancy. All information provided is general in nature and does not constitute medical advice.
References
Australian Breastfeeding Association. Expressing colostrum before baby is born. breastfeeding.asn.au
Cuffe, C., Giglia, R., Cooper, M. N., Hill, J., Silva, D., Moorhead, A. M., Verhasselt, V., Lewis, J. R., Ireson, D., Demirci, J. R., Cotte, T., Webb, K., Patey, F., & O'Sullivan, T. A. (2024). Study protocol for a stepped-wedge cluster (nested) randomized controlled trial of antenatal colostrum expression (ACE) instruction in first-time mothers: The ACE Study.
Forster, D. A., Moorhead, A. M., Jacobs, S. E., Davis, P. G., Walker, S. P., McEgan, K. M., Opie, G. F., Donath, S. M., Gold, L., McNamara, C., Aylward, A., East, C., Ford, R., & Amir, L. H. (2017). Advising women with diabetes in pregnancy to express breastmilk in late pregnancy (Diabetes and Antenatal Milk Expressing [DAME]): A multicentre, unblinded, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 389(10085), 2204–2213.
Moorhead, A. M., Amir, L. H., Forster, D. A., & Crawford, S. B. (2022). 'Is there any point in me doing this?' Views and experiences of women in the Diabetes and Antenatal Milk Expressing (DAME) trial. Maternal & Child Nutrition.
Shand, A. W., et al. (2022). Birth outcomes by type of attendance at antenatal education: An observational study. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Stein, E., Dixon, K., & Burns, E. (2025). "They painted a rosy view, but I would have preferred to hear the reality" — Australian women's experiences of antenatal breastfeeding education. Women and Birth, 38(2), 101888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2025.101888
