Working 12 hour shifts night and day and BF

[whostolemyname]

Hello
I am sad to say i will be going back to work soon when my little one will be a year old. I never imagined I would be breastfeeding now, before I had her I didn't think I would want to BF at all, but here we are and I love it, she seems to love the closeness of it and I don't think we are ready to stop.

She feeds 3 times during the day and twice at night at the moment - so 5 feeds a day. She doesnt need to feed to sleep, so that isn't a problem, although I do often feed her at night to help her sleep as we all get more sleep that way.

My concern is, when I am back at work I will be working 12 hour shifts so away from her about 14 hours each shift adding on commuting time, and my shifts may be day or night. I will be doing 2 shifts per week.

Is it possible to continue feeding working this kind of arrangement? Will my supply be lost? Or will I just become too engorged? Will she need to have bottles when I am away or will she make up for it when I am around? She happily drinks water from a cup so I am not worried about dehydration.

Any thoughts or experiences greatly appreciated.

thanks

bump

I work 13 hour shift and went back when LO was 13 mo and feeding 3-4 times a day and 3 times per night. I've been back at work for 2 months.

He has adapted well, drinks water when I'm not there but does want to feed as soon as he sees me.

I have not really had any problem with full breasts or being uncomfortable at work and on days off he feeds as normal. No change in supply for him.

Hope some long term BF come along to give their experiences.

Thank you so much for your reply Choccy that is really reassuring and good to hear. Do you work nights also?

I think you will be fine. I work full time shifts (8 hr early/late/ night with 12 hours on weekends). I went back to work when dd was 13mths old, and continued to breastfeed until she was around 19 months. My supply did not seem to diminish over that time, even though our feeding patterns were all over the place! You will probably find that when you get home from a shift she will want a mammoth feeding session, but that's nice, as it gives you a chance to reconnect (and sit down with a cup of tea ).

I was still feeding her in the night once I returned to work, so the first few rounds of nights were tough for my husband, but she was also taking water or cows milk from a cup by that time and she would go back to sleep with that, then have a feed from me once I got home.

I would think that at 1 year your supply should be suitably established that your working twice a week should nit have too much impact on it - you may wish to express, or you may (as I did) find that its not necessary. I rarely found engorgement to be an issue.

Hope this helps - apologies for any incoherence/rambling - I'm on my phone and can't face editing!

Good luck - you and dd will be fine .

I went back to work 3 weeks ago and posted a similar thread a while ago. The response was not very positive on my thread. DD is 10mo, and I am doing 13hr shifts day and night, and it has not been too bad so far. I have been getting up at 5.30am on work days to give her a quick feed while she is still asleep before I leave the house at 6.30am, but that is probably not necesary especially as your DD feeds overnight and mine usually doesn't. She is often still awake or wakes up not long after I get home just after 9pm so has a feed then, but not every night. My breasts really ached by the time I got home after the first long shift and were slightly uncomfortable the second time and ok after that. Last night was my first nightshift since going back to work, so she had a very quick feed before I went out yesterday evening but wasn't really interested as it was earlier than her usual evening feed, then she had already gone to nursery when I got home this morning and won't be back until about 5pm. My breasts are slightly achy now but not too bad. THere appears to be enough milk supply there for the days I am not at work. Also, she usually feeds to sleep at night when I am here but DH does manage to get her to sleep when I am at work and she has a cup of formula.

So, in my experience, which might not be the same as other people's, it has been ok. I don't know if it will be sustainable long-term though, especially when I do more than one nightshift in a row and only briefly see her in between, but I assume this would be similar to having a weekend away and people seem to manage that without losing their supply at this age.

I don't know if that is any help, or even if it makes sense as I've written after 2hrs sleep following the nightshift, but good luck with going back to work.

Thank you for your thoughts everyone, i guess it will just be a case of waiting and seeing. I feel so sad about it all, like 'life' is getting in the way of how I want to care for my baby. But i guess that is true for everyone and I am lucky to have had the maternity leave that i have had. Heres to hoping we can continue as long as possible.

If it helps, I went back to work on a 2 week freelance job when DD was 3 months old. DD was exclusively BF. My job wasn't the easiest for a newly breastfeeding mother - all male crew with one shared fridge, inside temperature of 39 degrees, shifts from 7am til 4am every day with only 20 mins for lunch. It was SO SO hard. On the last day I worked 7am til 7am without any breaks and I felt so ill and worried about mastitis.

But even in that situation, I didn't mess up supply too badly. It recovered after a day.

I'd say you'll be fine! The reality isn't really as complicated as you imagine it will be. Honest.

I did this when DS2 was about 8 months old. managed to carry on feeding. make sure you wear lots of breastpads though. if I didnt get to do the 10pm/ bedtime ish feed I used to get really engorged.
You always think its going to be worse than it is. if you can do a "comfort pump" then do.
Its good you will only be 2 shifts/week- plenty of time to recover between shifts