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Early years

19th Apr 2020

Apparently, the time you pump your breastmilk could impact your baby’s sleep

Trine Jensen-Burke

pumped breastmilk

Your body is an incredible thing, mama.

We all know by now that when it coms to tailor-made nutrition for your baby, nothing even comes close to breastmilk. It contains exactly the right nutrients for your baby to thrive and grow. It is always the correct temperature. It even responds to when your baby has a fever or an infection, changing to produce antibodies to send to your baby through your boobs.

Yep, that’s right.

Just take a look at this Facebook post by Sarah Filimore, a birth doula, that just went viral:

In the evening time, your milk contains a higher level of melatonin, the hormone responsible for making us feel sleepy and tired at the end of the day. Another component of night-time breastmilk is tryptophan – also known to bring on that woozy and ready-for-bed feeling.

This all makes sense if your baby is drinking straight from your breast, of course, as you are trying to get your baby onto a rhythm where he or she is awake during the day and feeling tired come bedtime.

However, if you are giving your baby milk that you have pumped, this is where the situation can get a little complicated. Why? Because that bag of breastmilk that you pumped at 9am this morning might not be the ideal chioce to give a baby who is just about to go down for the night. This milk naturally contains a higher level of cortisol, and might give your baby a sudden burst of energy just when you want them to start feeling tired.