Breastfeeding : Returning to Work

Breastfeeding is an emotional, private, intimate bonding experience for you and your baby. Yet, most new moms return to work outside the home within weeks of delivery and if you plan to continue to provide your baby with breast milk it can become a very public, daunting, and stressful experience. For some reason the workplace environment for many moms is not very supportive. I know, we have laws in place that require companies to provide breastfeeding mothers a private area that is not a bathroom to perform their necessary...you know. In my experience, no matter how private it is, it's not very private.  I could go on and on about how disappointing it is that our employers and government don't support a longer paid maternity care leave for new moms, but that's not what we are here for today.  If you are a working mom in the United States you typically get 6 weeks paid time off for a natural delivery and 8 weeks paid time off for a cesarian delivery. Yes, we get 12 weeks of FMLA but if you want to keep your income or even part of your income you need to return to work sooner than 12 weeks, which is entirely too soon.

So, what happens when we return to work?

We cry, we try to get back into our routine, we call the babysitter, look at pictures of our little one and count the minutes until we are home with them again. It's a very hard and emotional time trying to get back into a work routine and that routine is going to be significantly different than what it was before having a baby. On top of all of this we are supposed to take time out of our day to pump milk so that our baby can get all of the nutritional benefits of breastmilk they need.

There are so many places with information on best practices for pumping at work. They talk about having a picture of you little one close, keeping a schedule etc.  Let's get real about what happens when we go into the office or pull over in a deserted parking lot to take care of our duties.

First of all, PLAN PLAN PLAN! Make sure you have all of your equipment together, a way to clean it and somewhere to store the milk. You don't want to go through all of the effort for it to just go to waste. You also don't want to be stuck in the middle of the day with throbbing milk makers and no way to relieve them. I usually get all of my stuff together the nigth before and leave it by the door or put it in my car so I don't forget.

Schedule: I tried to stick with a schedule where I could pump while taking my lunch break.  This kills two birds with one stone so it makes it easier to take the time. When I couldn't do this....
Stay Productive: Figure out what you can do one handed.  If you are like me, you can hardly stand just sitting there for 20-30 minutes without doing anything, especially in the middle of a super busy work day. A lot of my work is done on my phone so I hold the pump with one hand and send emails with the other. You will probably read that you are supposed to be in a calm environment so that you can focus on milk production without distractions and relax etc.  I didn't find it helped my production one way or the other so I made the most of the time I had.

Order a pump with a carrying case.  This made it so I could enclose the pump to muffle the sound and make a couple necessary calls, I hope it was muffled enough...

Try to let the babysitter know when you are planning to pick up your little one. This could benefit in two ways: you can nurse and won't have to pump again. Or, if you are beginning to lose your supply you can either make sure the babysitter gives him some milk before you pick him up or save it so you can try to nurse when you get him home. I am almost at six months and I have started to lose my supply so it doesn't matter either way to me. If we have leftover bottles I will give them to our son right before we go to bed so he gets a nice dinner and is more likely to sleep longer through the night.

Get an adapter so you can plug it in while riding in the car and take advantage of any opportunity for date night because I am sure you have noticed they have dwindled significantly.  How do these relate? For our first couple date nights I packed the pump so I could pump on the way home and this way I didn't have to do it after we got home. I always made sure to have plenty of milk thawed and then I just put the milk I pumped into the freezer. That way date night it less stressful as far as scheduling feedings and everyone is comfortable.

If you have to travel for work discuss needs and expectations with your employer to make sure you are provided the necessary time, resources and privacy. Be blunt about your schedule and your needs. A few of my superiors were not very familiar with my needs so I made sure I was very clear about my expectations. For example, I was supposed to travel for four days when my son was only fifteen weeks old and since he was a preemie we were still waking up multiple times throughout the night to nurse.  I had to let my boss know that I was uncomfortable having a roommate on the trip because I would need to continue that schedule while away in order to keep up with my son.  My boss didn't think about that and I can't imagine how uncomfortable those nights would have been if I had a roommate, for both of us.

One of the most important things is to ALLOW YOURSELF TO FOCUS ON WORK.  It's okay to go a couple hours without thinking about your baby.  If you are able to focus on work and get your tasks done, you will be able to enjoy your time at home with your family without thinking about what needs to be done with work.

Finally, I can't stress enough: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. You can't care for your family if you aren't keeping yourself healthy and happy.

This is my last post on breastfeeding unless there is a request for other topics to be discussed.  I am open for whatever so let me know if there is anything you think needs to be talked about. Happy breastfeeding and happy babies :)

Embrace food, family and everything else that makes you happy