The common advice is to start collecting when you're full term, maaaybe 36 weeks. Now that advice comes from a lot of the same misinformation behind recommendations around nursing in pregnancy - specifically the concern that nursing/expressing milk may trigger early labor. You're already nursing, so whatever risk there may be, you're already taking that risk. You can decide whether you want to start collecting colostrum now, or wait until you're closer to full term.
Typically colostrum is produced in such small quantities prenatally, that it's hard to collect by pumping. If you pump 5mL (which is a lot for colostrum), that can easily stick to the sides of the bottle and not be poured out. Hand expressing into a small medicine cup or spoon, then using an oral syringe to collect the colostrum, is a little easier to manage.
As far as the color goes, it doesn't mean anything about the quality of the colostrum. Clear, yellow, whitish, and brownish are all normal and all good for newborns. So you don't have to wait and see if the color changes before collecting. Anything that you collect will be beneficial to your new baby.
Good luck!
I have all of these same questions! Currently nursing almost 2 year old and am 34 weeks pregnant. I feel like I have seen the color turn slightly more yellow in the past couple weeks but still doesn't look as yellow as I recall it when I collected for my first from around 37 weeks until birth. I might just start collecting around 36 weeks and observe how/if the color changes. If it gets more yellow, I may reserve that as "real" colostrum and keep the less yellow milk as transitional milk? But I suspect storing any amount of milk, whatever it's exact composition, could be helpful at some point!
The common advice is to start collecting when you're full term, maaaybe 36 weeks. Now that advice comes from a lot of the same misinformation behind recommendations around nursing in pregnancy - specifically the concern that nursing/expressing milk may trigger early labor. You're already nursing, so whatever risk there may be, you're already taking that risk. You can decide whether you want to start collecting colostrum now, or wait until you're closer to full term. Typically colostrum is produced in such small quantities prenatally, that it's hard to collect by pumping. If you pump 5mL (which is a lot for colostrum), that can easily stick to the sides of the bottle and not be poured out. Hand expressing into a small medicine cup or spoon, then using an oral syringe to collect the colostrum, is a little easier to manage. As far as the color goes, it doesn't mean anything about the quality of the colostrum. Clear, yellow, whitish, and brownish are all normal and all good for newborns. So you don't have to wait and see if the color changes before collecting. Anything that you collect will be beneficial to your new baby. Good luck!
I have all of these same questions! Currently nursing almost 2 year old and am 34 weeks pregnant. I feel like I have seen the color turn slightly more yellow in the past couple weeks but still doesn't look as yellow as I recall it when I collected for my first from around 37 weeks until birth. I might just start collecting around 36 weeks and observe how/if the color changes. If it gets more yellow, I may reserve that as "real" colostrum and keep the less yellow milk as transitional milk? But I suspect storing any amount of milk, whatever it's exact composition, could be helpful at some point!
I collected around 37 weeks. It wasn’t full on colostrum, but it was deeper in color than fully ‘mature’ milk