Not sure if this is the right place but... breastfeeding and returning to work

[MrsAnthonyKiedis]

Wasn't sure if it might be better in legal, but here goes anyway.
Am going back to work in Sept, having had a year off. As part of my contract I have to undertake a professional qualification, of which I have completed one year. I am returning Monday and Tuesday, and course will be running either Friday- for which I have no childcare, or Monday evening. Whilst this would be a big slog, attending 6-9pm after working 8-5.30, the main issue is that dd is still breastfed, and I intend for her to hopefully still be then. She will be 1, and down to breakfast and bedtime on the days I work (I imagine/hope). Bedtime is 7-8pm. So I cannot feasibly leave her without her bedtime feed, and cannot express anymore, I only get a drop out.
Intimated this to my employers and course tutors, and they are being arsey about it. They have suggested I take another year out, which I don't want to do, as am v poorly paid and my pay goes up dramaticaly when qualified. Other colleagues have been able to complete the course via individual tutorials, something they are not offering to me. The Equality and Diversity Officer is supposedly involved, but I have heard nothing from him. Tutor's comment was "well you will have to decide what your priority is"! Ermm, let me think....feeding my baby! HR woman was v snotty and said "Are you suggesting we lay on another session of the course to suit you?" Don't really know what, if any, rights I have in this area. Had thought it might be an equal opps issue?
Ironically I teach law, and trained to be a solicitor but don't know the answer to my q, it's a bit of a specialised area and I am a bit rusty
If anyone can offer any advice I would be grateful. Should I post this in legal too?
TIA, threelittlebabies

[tiktok]

The law may protect you, MAK, under health and safety (check it out), but in practical terms, at over a year your dd should be able to cope with one evening a week without a bedtime bf.

Yes, of course you should be offered the chance to be flexible, but if it came to arguing about it, then you would be on shaky ground trying to insist your dd could not manage one evening a week.

Expressing is not an option, as its your presence giving the bf that's important to a toddler, rather than the milk itself. But with patience and support, your dd will cope just fine - and I hope lots of people will post on here to give you their experience.

FWIW, I did an evening class when one of mine was down to 2 feeds, and skipped the bedtime feed once a week, and it worked out fine.

[MissChief]

oh god, this is going to affect us too soon. Hope you work it out ok!
Dare i admit to not even wanting to ask for the right to express? male-dominated office etc and..well, lots of reasons..My ds will also be over 1 and currently still has a lunchtime feed which i'll drop when at work, but might still need to express and will have to do so sneakily, I guess. oh, hate the thought of it, esp as feeling a bit bruised about "still" feeding 11 mth old - a woman I've never met but who is
a) educated
b) works in a childcare setting
told me it was"inappropriate" and "unnecessary" to bf at his age!! I was too at the time to respond. My have to be a born-again militant bfer at this rate!

[MrsAnthonyKiedis]

tiktok thanks for the reassuarance. I don't think dd as she is at the moment would cope with that, she is unbelievably clingy, but will bear it in mind. I have only been out twice before her bedtime since she was born- to see Take That and for the recent meet up- and both times I fed her before I went.

tbh I think the major issue with my employers is the fact they have not offered me any flexiblity at all, which they bend over backwards to offer other students. In this capacity I am a student!