To think I can continue to breastfeed when I return to work?

[aimingtobeaperfectionist]

My maternity leave is due to finish at the end of January and either I go back to work or I have no money.
My DD will be 8.5 months and up until now is still breastfed.
I had always assumed I would be able to continue this until I/we felt it was right to stop. This would possibly mean me having to pump during working hours. My thoughts were that I would be able to do this however having read a lot online it seems many people don't agree mothers at work should be allowed to do this. I woul be quite happy to use my breaks to do it but I'm concerned I'm going to meet some prejudice. AIBU? Am I just being overly concerned? Has anyone dealt with this situation with or without success?

As other have said, you are legally protected in your right to have breaks to either BF or express. However, you might find you may not need to do it for long as you DD will "learn" when you are around and will catch up in the morning, evening (and night...be prepared) and weekends. If you have a well established supply and she's happily taking water during the day this might work well for you. Expressing is a pain in the neck. How many days will you work and for how many hours will you be apart from your DD?

I combined work with BF with both mime (full time work with DS1 - weaned at 3 1/2; 4 days work with DS2 - still BF at 3 3/4), though I am very fortunate to have on site nursery facilities so I could go and see my nurslings.

I have been back at work for 6 months now and am still bfeeding DD when I'm with her.

Pumping lasted for one week as I just could not find the time (secondary teacher), and she wouldn't take the milk from the childminder anyway, so it was a waste.

Supply has coped just fine :)

I had to go back to work at 5months. I expressed until dd was 1yo. 3times a day at first, gradually down to 1

I got the use if the first aid room and the fridge.

It made me feel better about having to leave her as I was doing something so position for her iyswim (as well as working to keep a roof over our heads )

I went back to uni full time when dd was 8 months. It was fine. I fed her morning and night and back then my supply had dropped down enough so that I didn't get engorged during the day. I carried on feeding her until she was 12 months.

I went back at 8 months and dropped to morning and evening only ( with commute I was away from her 8-6), we carried on like this till she was about 2.5. A couple of times when she was ill and went back to round the clock BFing my supply coped fine although it was very tiring.

Hi aiming, your worries are exactly the same as mine were a few months ago.

I went back to work when my daughter was 8 months. After a difficult start to breastfeeding, it had settled down to being easy and enjoyable and a special part of every day for us. I was dreading having to be away from her during the day.

I expressed in my breaks at work. It wasn't tonnes of fun, just a bit boring. But I would look at pics of dd on my phone, or read a magazine and it actually became a bit of a nice peaceful break from my work.

Dd settled in brilliantly with her childminder. She'd cry at drop-off at first but she loves being with the other children. She didn't drink very much in the day, it soon settled down to about 70-90ml, which was fairly quick for me to express. I'd feed her when I picked her up and it was a lovely way to say hello and reconnect.

She's now 14 months and still happily breastfeeding. I don't bother expressing in the day anymore. My supply is settled and dd drinks some cows milk in the day.

It really can work out well. You clearly have the motivation to make it work. It wasn't nearly as difficult/complicated as I thought, and I'm sure it'll be the same for you

I went back to work when DS was 6 months old and intended to BF in evenings and mornings, but he preferred bottles (he had 2 during the day) and refused to feed from me after a few weeks. I wasn't that bothered though - although I was not keen to feed during night!

SIL on the other hand went back to work when her DS was 12 months old and she fed morning and night (and during night) for a year after than, her DS did not want to stop. Her DS wouldn't take milk in a bottle though and as he was older he just had solids and water in the day.

Neither of us expressed milk.

So I would say whatever your intention its up to your baby as much as you!

however having read a lot online it seems many people don't agree mothers at work should be allowed to do this.

What people think is irrelevant, the law is on your side.

www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=3731

returned to full time work after four months with all three. Carried on for embarrassingly long time. They tended to feed all night while sleeping and have expressed milk in bottles from the nanny. Breast milk freezes. Just make sure you warn anyone with access to your freezer, tends to freak people out. Fetch the ice for the drinks yourself? One of the good bits is that if your kids are breastfed and you need to fly, you can stick them up your jumper and they don't get earache on take off! Yay! Again, be prepared for the OMG crew...

Good luck! It helped me remember that I was an ok mum when people made me feel awful for working even tho' it was necessary for food on table, roof over head etc.

ps my eldest is 19 now. It was probably hard work, can't remember...

Another succesful fulltime working/breastfeeding mum here. I went back to work fulltime when DD was 14 weeks (away from 7.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.) and she was breastfed to 15 months. It's a bit hazy but I seem to recall that around 8 months was when I could finally stop pumping in the night and just feed morning and night and on demand at weekends and holidays. We swapped her lunchtime feed for a yoghurt and a small drink of cows milk at that age - breastmilk was still her main source of food but she was an early self-weaner so had other foodstuff too, and we have no allergy issues in the family so weren' concerned about dairy. I think there was some reverse-cycling going on too.

My work were very suportive - I broke my lunchbreak down into 3 x 20 minutes and pumped mid morning, lunchtime and afternoon for the first few months back at work.

I should add tgat the reason I didn't express at work was not that work made it difficult or anything (althiugh the only private room was miles away in another building so it would have been tricky, mine was a fully occupied office building with glass in all the doors) but because DD was a complete bottle refuser, so she just had water from sippy cups in the day, plus plenty of yogurt and cheese, then cow's milk from 12 months.

thixotropic makes a good point about it being something so positive for your child.

Anyone else can do every other part of childcare, but only the mother can breastfeed. It can really help when returning to work to know that.

I think your supply is so settled by then, and iirc your supply tends to take a big drop naturally at around 7 months (presumably as most babies are well established on solids by then), so I found I could feed 8 mo dd myself morning and night, the childminder gave her a bottle of (shock horror) formula at lunchtime and I didn't need to express or wear pads or anything.

Only thing I will say is dd kind of self weaned at 12 months, she started losing interest in her night time feeds so that's when I decided to stop and started giving her beakers of cows milk morning and night instead, which she took to immediately. It wasn't such a massive transition either as she seems to have not been falling asleep after my feeds for a while, so we had already had to employ other strategies to get her to sleep - so the non-soothing effects of the beaker weren't an issue. She has always refused a dummy as well.

I have often wondering if my supply had fallen too low, which is why she became less interested/soothed by the night feeds, but actually I think she just was distracted and curious and wanted to be a bit more grown up so took to the beaker! Plus I carried on producing milk for well over a year after I stopped - I would occasionally leak and would always produce something if I squeezed my nipples! Never felt engorged though, so that gradual transition In stopping worked well for me to prevent me getting mastitis etc.

2nd that it is a lovely thing to do for your baby when you go back. The feeds I remember enjoying the most were those morning cuddles when I would bring her in to bed with me after hitting the snooze button, or the feeds before bed when she would give me big smiles and stroke my face! Really lovely way if reconnecting with your baby if you have been away during the day! Never really felt the whole beautiful "bonding" thing when she was tiny and I felt like I was feeding her 24/7!