Breastfeeding and going back to work

[appledumpling]

If (and it is IF!) I go back to work it will be when DS is about 5 months old. It would likely be 2.5 days a week.

I would like to have DS on breastmilk alone until he is 6 months old although don't want to force weaning if he isn't interested.

I would be interested to hear how easy people found it to express at work and whether you've managed to keep your DC exclusively on breastmilk.

I'm a bit worried about my milk supply because I can only really express successfully in the morning and even then it doesn't always work. I also think I'll be expressing in the toilets because there is nowhere else private (not work's fault, it's just the way the building is).

I don't really enjoy expressing but am trying (with some success) to build up a stockpile of frozen breastmilk to give to the nursery. I don't know how much milk a 5 month old baby will need during the working day - quite a lot?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Not sure how much help I can be cos my dd goes to the nursery in the same building as my work so I get to bf her in my breaks. However she is a very hungry baby and i have to provide a bottle of formula for the mornings, then i go in twice in the afternoons to bf. I couldn't express enough for her morning feeds.
She is 5 months. My milk supply is fine with missing the morning feed though - actually seems a bit better.

Thanks Bizziebee, I thought it could be quite a lot of milk!

The nursery I would hopefully be using is literally round the corner from work but I don't think it will be practical for me to go out of work and feed DS. My job is very unpredictable and can be very quiet or completely manic plus work might well feel it is not what they are paying me to do.

I expressed for my dd when I went back to work, she was nine months. I was worried how I would keep up with her, so I started freezing milk months in advance which really helped ( had a whole drawer of it at one point) . Found expresing at work ok, the more you do the easier it is. I also did a 10pm express every night to add to my supplies so my breasts were making extra then as they thought dd had a feed then. I also expressed on days when I was with her which helped keep the stocks up. Once she got to one, I stopped expressing and she had goat at the cm's and bf when she was with me. Good luck with it.

Oh meant to say employers have to consider the health and safety of a breast feeding mother and they may be obliged to give you breaks to go and feed your dd since you works so close to her nursery.

yes - thats true - its covered under the health and safety at work act. If at all possible they have to let you feed your baby. If not they have to give you time to express - and you have the right to a quiet room with a locked door. Unless this is just scottish law - i am north of the border!

I'm going in to work this week so will ask them about feeding/expressing and see what they say.

if nursery is so close might actually seem more sensible to your employees to let you go there than find you room to express, somewhere to express etc. if you look on internet for maternity alliance, it tells you what your rights are as a working mother. hope this helps

DD was 6 months and was eating solids when I went back 3-days per week, so only bf her morning, evening and through the night on my work days. Never expressed and supply was fine. (BTW, am still bf her at 11 months).
Hope this helps.

Hi, also have a look here. They have a leaflet you can download that lists your rights as a new mum. I also think that if your nursery is right around the corner it might be easier to go around to bf your ds. This would only work if he is already on some sort of routine (say every 4 hours). I went back when my ds2 was 5 months myself, and although my nursery also is round the corner, I chose to bring in expressed milk, as his feeding pattern was very irregular. They did offer to call me in whenever he needed feeding though, and some of my colleagues did do this. In stead I expressed twice daily in the first two months and once daily in the following months. I stopped expressing at work all together when ds was about 10 months old, and just did at home in the evenings. This gave me enough ebm to feed him on his nursery days.
HTH.

Thanks all. I'm sure it will be fine and we will just have to see what works best. It's just a big unknown at the moment.