BFing past 6 months- practicalities of it..

[1Catherine1]

The end of my ML is looming (July) so it has got me thinking about when I return to work properly in Sept after the summer holidays. Ideally I'd like to BF along with solids but I'm wondering how much milk she needs when on solids. Will I be able to express enough during my two breaks (one of 15 minutes the other of 20 minutes) for the next day or would I need a freezer supply? If I fed her at 7am before work and at 5pm after work that is.

How understanding are employers to the needs of BF mothers?

I would really like to hear how others have managed returning to work and being breastfeeding mums so I can get an idea of how I might mange. I'm really quite clueless on this as I'm a first time mum.

TIA

Talk to your HV or look online - your employer has a legal obligation to help make it easy to BF. They will only be expected to do what's reasonable, so depending on your work environment this may mean extra breaks, a private roon to BF in (e.g. the first aid room) and a fridge to store the milk. Read up on your rights then when you talk to your employer / the HR deot / whomever about your return to work, let them know your plans to continue BF so they have a chance to identify how to help.

typos!
private room
HR dept

D'oh

Watching with interest as returning to work when DS is 10.5m....... :)

I know there is a legal requirement for your employer to provide you with time, fridge space and a room to express in if you want to. How old will your DD be when you are due to return to work? It might be that before too long she will be able to manage in the daytime with just solids and juice and things like cheese and yoghurt.

There's a book called "Working mother, Nursing mother" which is supposed to be very good, although I haven't read it - it's about ways to combine working and BFing.

DD will be 5.5 months in Sept (not worried about July as am only back for one week and its no work week). Will have a look for that book - sounds perfect.

5.5 months is quite young - you probably will have to express quite a lot. But it's definitely doable :) Hopefully someone will be along to share experience soon, but if not, if you look on American websites you might find more tips, as expressing is much more common there.

Kellymom is a good starting point, but you could look for forums as well.

Sodium, it should be a lot more straightforward at 10.5 months as they need less milk by then. Even if your LO feeds a lot when you are around, by 10 months they can be happy on 2-3 feeds a day if you're not there which might be (e.g.) before work, after work and one bottle during the day, or one feed before, one after and one at bedtime.

Perfectly possible, start expressing now so you get a bit of a stash in the freezer. I breastfed/expressed returning to work fulltime at 14 weeks (and I mean fulltime). I expressed three times during the day, once in the morning, once in the evening and once during the night. However, the number of expressing sessions started dropping from 6 months onwards, the night time one was the first to go.

DS2 was nearly 9 months when I went back to work, and I just gave the CM formula to use during the day and carried on feeding morning and evening, more on weekends and days off, I had lots of leave to use and was able just do a 4 day week for a while. I still feed him morning and night now and he was 2 in February, if I'm not around dp gives him a bottle of ordinary milk. It works for us.

I have just gone back to work, ds was 7m when I started back. He eats everything in sight and has dropped a lot of feeds, so only needed 2 4 or 5oz bottles a day when he started, and has now dropped to 1. I know some babies don?t drop feeds as quickly though, but there is a calculator on Kellymom about how much to leave, I think its 1oz per hour plus an extra one iirc.. I am expressing twice a day, and getting between 8 and 10 oz a day, which is plenty for my needs. I bought a really good pump in preparation, an Ameda Lacteline, and it?s so much better than the cheapo Tommee Tippee electrical one I had before, I got it for £50 second hand on ebay but given how much better it is would happily pay retail now! I built up a freezer stash before I went as well in case of emergencies, so that?s one thing I would definitely recommend.

My HR dept have been brilliant, they have booked a meeting room for me each day for half an hour (although I take nothing like that but it gives me a bit of flexibility in case I?m busy) and I just go and shut myself in and get on with it. On days that the room is needed for other things they have even moved out of their office and let me use that instead. I really can?t fault them, they didn?t bat an eyelid when I requested it, but I don?t know if anyone?s requested it before, I can?t think of the last person here who had a baby so I may well be the first. Make sure you take something with you when you express as you get much more when you are relaxed. I have a little video and pics of DS on my phone which I look at to start off, and then when the letdown comes I read emails/text etc. It?s amazing what a difference it makes.

I found the first few days I needed loads of sets of breast pads as I was not only adjusting to not feeding as much, but also I kept getting random letdowns whenever I thought about DS and was missing him, so take a few spare ones to avoid embarrassment! I spent a really warm day walking round with my jacket on as I?d leaked through to my shirt.

Also, for the first month, DS refused milk from the minder. It wasn?t a bottle issue as he happily took 2 bottles from his dad the day before I started back, we can only think it was because he didn?t feel comfortable enough with her ? he started taking it when he?d been there a month. It may not happen to you but just something to watch out for. We weren?t that worried as we knew he wasn?t starving as he was eating loads of solids and drinking water. And to be fair, he has plenty of fat reserves

Sorry that was a bit of an essay!

Hi!

Just wanted to say that I will be watching this thread with interest as I too will be returning to work for a week in July and then properly in September (teachers eh! haha). I plan to continue breastfeeding alongside solids but have no idea to go about it (DS will be 7 1/2 months in September). I am kind of hoping it will all fall into place for us catherine