If you’re thinking, “What in the crocheted boob is going on here?” trust me, you are not alone. When I got into this profession I had no idea how many crocheted body parts I would have.

All kidding aside, this tool can be helpful in demonstrating how to hand express our breast milk and/or colostrum. First things first, finger placement. When we are hand expressing let’s think of our areola as a clock. There are many milk ducts and glands that meet in our areola tissue and we need to stimulate them (all) to maximize our time and effort while hand expressing. I find it easiest to start at 10 and 2 (although eventually working your way around and back). With freshly washed hands place your index finger and thumb at the 10 and 2 mark. We want to be on the outer edge of our areola not close to the nipple. Think- where your areola stops and your breast begins. With proper finger alignment we’ll then PRESS back into your chest wall, COMPRESS fingers together (think- gently pinching, fingers do not need to meet) and then PULL forward extending your nipple out away from your body. All of this should be pain-free and gently done. Think about your ducts as veins, we need to be gentle. So you’ll want to get into a rhythm with our new PRESS + COMPRESS + PULL method of hand expressing. So, PRESS + COMPRESS + PULL + PRESS + COMPRESS + PULL + PRESS + COMPRESS + PULL… We’ll continue this rhythm moving around the areola like a clock until we have yielded the amount needed. You got this!