Breastfeeding and work

[PebbleTTC]

Hi all, hoping someone can help. I will be returning to work when my baby is 7 months old and I would like to continue until he is 1 year old.

What do I do about baby's milk needs during the day. I can't pump at work as there is literally no where I could do it - open plan glass box meeting rooms.

Is there a first aid room? Employee showers (cleaner than toilets if not much used), even a stationery/storage cupboard with a lockable door would work. If you drive to work, pumping in the car can be discreet under a poncho

I returned full time at 7 months and fed til a year. Expressed before and after work (with opposite sides than those used for breakfast and evening feeds - eg breakfast on left at 7am, express at 8 on right hand side, express on left at 6pm, feed at 7 on right hand side. This meant he had two bottles a day, which he had mid morning and mid afternoon...

Regardless of what your work has, they do have to provide you somewhere to work. But I didn't want to express at work...

You probably already know that the law requires them to find you somewhere to pump, and somewhere to store the milk, so I suggest speaking to your manager to try and work together on a solution.

However, by that time baby will have started weaning, so it's possible that you could feed morning and evening and find another time each day to pump a middle of the day bottle. Of course each baby is different but my ds was down to two feeds a day by about 9 months

Hi Pebble, do you know of any BF support groups that run locally? I volunteer at one and these are the sort of questions we get asked a lot. They should have lots of information and leaflets to give you.

How old is your baby? By 7 months they will be starting to move onto solids and will not need as frequent feeds as they did as a newborn. Also it's good time to introduce a cup for water/expressed milk.

I thought the law was that your employer needs to find you somewhere private to do it, and that doesn't mean the toilet. However I do know that trying to get this to happen is not always easy.

I went back to work at 5 and 6 months. I did start to pump and freeze milk in advance and keep it in the deep freezer and take it to nursery with baby in the morning. After about a week or two my son decided he was going to wait until mummy got home before he fed. He would be away from me from 8am-6pm. Expressed milk was always offered but he never took it. I also found that with a bit of practice I could express at lunch time in about 20 mins with manual pump, more to relieve the pressure and keep up supply. At home I would feed him from one boob and express from the other and save it in the fridge in a bottle for the next day at nursery. He did keep a night feed if I remember correctly but we co-slept and it didn't really wake me up too much.

also this is a good resource:

www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Express%20and%20store%20booklet_0.pdf

Sorry I should have said I am in Ireland. The law here is they don't have to provide a room if there is nothing available but they do have to give you time off instead so could finish an hour early but that still wouldn't help.

Can you really pump in the car? that might be an option

Thanks captain! He is almost 4 months now and has had an expressed bottle every Wednesday when I go to an exercise class.

I have a battery-operated Lansinoh pump and expect to be seen in the next few months parked up by the roadside all over Westmeath and Longford (I'm a vet) as I pump and pop bottles in the coolbag! I hope it'll work. DS will be 5 months and in sole charge of Daddy!

Hi Villain, that sounds like something I could do - I just have to park down the back of car park or something!

I'm going back to work very soon - DD will be 6 months. I've started building up a stash in the freezer and will pump on my lunch break in the first aid room.

I don't know how long you've left your baby for as yet but I did a KIT day when DD was 4 months and was surprised how little she drank when I wasn't there. She made up for it when I got home though!

I'm hoping that she'll be happy with just a couple of feeds through the day, and I'll aim to feed her morning, evening, bedtime and through the night as she needs it.

I was hoping the middle of the night feeds would end once solids start but I prob won't be so lucky!!