Nowhere suitable to express returning to work

[Tangles451]

I will be returning to work in 1.5 months, when my baby will be 8 months old. I want to continue to breastfeed him morning and evening and express at work in my lunch hour. I have been told that the only place I can express is the security office as it has a lock and blinds on the windows. However as it also contains the security officers, I would have to ask them to leave each time, disrupting them and anyone who needs to see them. I have been told by my employer that there are no other rooms with blinds. The only other alternative is the disabled toilets.

I feel deeply uncomfortable at asking the all male security to leave their room every day. What do people think about expressing in the toilets? It is very important to me to continue breastfeeding along with solid food, which I have recently started introducing.

When I started work again post baby I had to make the best of it at various customers premises( I'm self employed) which often meant using a toilet / bath room. Expressing in a toilet isn't great, but it isn't impossible either. At least the door locks , your private and have access to a sink to wash hands. .

Poor you, that sounds a) awful and b) like they haven't tried very hard.

Can you not iterate to them what you've said about it not being acceptable and hope they come back with something better?

FWIW I returned when last dc was a year but still pretty much ebf as had a bowel condition. He'd be happy all day at nursery with water from a cup and odd bits of fruit and veg, then would feed overnight.

I carried on feeding til he was two, and not once pumped during the day.

Is there another room that you would find suitable? You could cover the window with a poster or a portable blackout curtain if no blinds?

I thought they had to make provisions?

No, I think they have to allow her to rest and time to express, nothing else.

TBF if the employer is suggesting the security room then they have solved the problem.

It's HSE good practice to provide more but not law

Why do you need somewhere lockable and private? If baby was with you and you were feeding, rather than expressing, you'd do it in the staff room (or wherever you eat lunch). Why does expressing need to be different?

Sorry, if it's a stupid question but I am genuinely interested.

Shirley, because it's a lot easier to feed without exposing boob than to express.

Thank you all for the advice. The meeting rooms all have floor to ceiling blinds, so I couldn't just use a poster of black out blind unfortunately.

ShirleySmears - If there was a room I could just put a sign up asking people not to come in and hope they take note. I am very comfortable feeding the baby in public, however there is a lot more on show expressing. Also, I don't want to have co-workers worry about bodily fluids around them, especially if I get ill. When feeding the baby directly it gets stored straight away.

In a pinch a disabled toilet will do (as long as you're on a manual or battery pump). Could you sit in your car? I'm guessing there's no first aid room.

Fwiw I've been pumping for over a year now. It can be done.

I would go for meeting room and a sign not to be disturbed no one would barge in on an important meeting so not sure why it's any different! If you have your back to the door no one will see anything if they come in and yes there is mote on show when you put the pump on but when it gets going your very much covered.

I expect I will have the same problem as you. I'm pregnant now and intend to return from mat leave at a similar time and to breastfeed (she hopes). I know what is good HSE practice etc. but knowing my work premises, I can't think of anywhere better to pump than the disabled loos either. It's not work being awkward, we just don't have anywhere suitable. I guess we're just going to have to be adaptable.