
Lovely Abella just left Hong Kong for a short work trip where she attended a jewelry fair.
As a breastfeeding mom, the actress thought of collecting her breast milk even while being away from her child, Liam, who is only five months old. Liam is her first child with her husband Benj Manalo.
She brought her own breast pump and breast milk storage bags at work so she could collect fresh breast milk anytime.
True enough, Lovely has built a breast milk stash which she carefully stored in an insulated bag with ice tubes, hoping it will remain unspoiled until she comes back home.
"Dami kung pasalubong sa anak ko. Sana hindi masira," she said in her Instagram Story.
While she has collected a good amount of breast milk for her son, Lovely's worst nightmare is that her unfed milk will go to waste.
Freshly expressed or pumped milk can be stored for up to four hours at room temperature, according to the US national public health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Unfortunately for Lovely, she already used all her breast milk storage bags while on the work trip and had nowhere to store her leftover expressed breast milk. So instead of discarding it, she drank her own breast milk straight from a bottle to avoid wastage.
"Ayaw ko magtapon ng milk ko. Sobra akong nanghihinayang [face holding back tears emoji]. Naubusan na kasi ako ng milk bag [grinning face with sweat emoji]," she said.
Consuming one's own breast milk is safe, ob-gyn Mary Jane Minkin, M.D., clinical professor at the Yale School of Medicine, said. In fact, it may have various health benefits.