Should I stop BF or stay at home?

[Swaliswan]

I really need some sound advice. My DD is exclusively bf I don't have to go back to work until she is 9 months old but I work shifts so it will be very hard to continue bf once I'm back at work. My boss phoned me the other day and (by law) I have to tell her whether I want an extra 3 months unpaid mat leave by the end of october. If I take the leave, DD will be 1 year old when I go back to work and can then go straight on to cows milk. We can just about afford for me to take the leave. I know about the benefits of bf exclusively for six months but what about after that? Is BM better for DD than formula from six months or have I given her BM when it really matters and can now switch without any detriment to DD? All the info I can find is for babies under 6 months old - maybe that's a sad reflection of the attitude towards bf in this country?

Firstly you have done a great job BF to 9 months & if you want/need to stop then you should - you need to do what is best for you as a family.

If I remember correctly BF continues to be beneficial for as long as you continue.
Now at a year I am ony feeding twice per day - a change from 4-5 at 9 months..

Perhaps if you decide to wait until she is a year you could do a feed still once (or even twice) a day - really depends on how extreme your shifts are and how she reacts to potentially having milk at different times of the day I suppose.

I would say, personally that if you can afford to stay at home for the extra three months then do: the benefits to your dd (and not just bf) would make it worth while imo. But, tbh, if you think you need to go back to work, then I don't think it's going to do her any harm. You may find ways of making it work, even if the feeds are a bit irregular. Or you could express.

I suppose, what I'm saying is, don't make the decision based on the bf, look at the bigger picture. You've already done fantastically well by bf this far, I really think at this point the difference is negligible. HTH

BTW Swalisan, if your job entitles you to 1 year's mat leave then by law you do NOT have to tell your boss if you want the 3 months unpaid leave. You have to tell them if you want to return before the end of the year's leave. (In my case I'm going back after 7 months and I have to give 8 weeks notice).
Don't let your boss push you to make a decision you don't want to make!

i took a full year. borrowed money for the three months unpaid, after all would get a loan for car or whatever, this seemed a worthwhile cause it made it much better for me to go back when ds was a toddler, rather than a baby.

you could prob carry on bf even round your shifts.

I took a whole year mat leave (and at the time was 6 months unpaid) and ended up not going back to my original employer but getting a really flexible part time job (2 days per week) and going back when DS was 11 months. He was exclusively BF. I did panic a bit as at 10 months he still seemed to be feeding a lot, but by the time I started work he was pretty much down to 2 feeds a day. We're still going and he's now 14 months .

I really appreciated spending the 'extra' time with him, and not just because I kept bf-ing him.

Swali,you should be fine to carry on b/feeding after that time.I worked f/t from when dd was 8 mths and she happily went without b/milk when I was at work and just had water or juice at those times as I didd not want to give her formula.

Your supply will be well established so should adapt.

You might be very suprised how your milk will keep coming despite shifts and irratic feeding. By 9 months your supply is really flexible. I went back to work when DD was 9 months and she continued to BF as normal when I was around and took Rice Milk in a bottle at nursery. She is now 1 and I stopped feeding for 8 days recently as I had a business trip. When I returned DD took just a few hours to get by breasts working again.

I find that DD resists all the common the nursery infections very well which I put down to BF.

Even working shifts, you could almost certainly go back at 9 months, keep breastfeeding a couple of times a day and switch a couple of feeds to formula.

If you do go back to work they are obliged to allow you breaks to express milk anyway - I kept up B/f with DS# like that - he stopped at 2 1/2 after 21 months of me pummping two bottles a day at work for the childminder to use next day ( only had to stop someone from using it in their tea once! lol!)
Lisa x

Thanks everyone. My shifts are either 7am-3pm, 1pm-9pm or 8:30pm-7:30am so I'm worried that I won't be able to keep even one feed consistent. I guess that my main worry is that I am a naughty bf to sleep mummy and she is going to have to learn to cope with going to sleep when I'm working late. I have started trying to put her down whilst she is sleepy but still awake with mixed success but I have no idea whether she is genuinely hungry or looking for comfort when she feeds so much in the evening. I don't know how she will cope with having a bottle at bedtime Ah well, I suppose that I'll have to stop sometime...

She will cope it'll take her a bit of time to get used to it, but she will cope. And you don't need to keep one particular feed constant just feed her once or twice a day whenever you are around and she's hungry.

You don';t have to choose between going back at 9 months and going back at a year, either -- you can pick some point in between, if that makes a better balance between what you want to do and what your finances will stand.

I went back to work when DD was 9mo and am still bfeeding at 2.2yo. I just dropped to 3, then 2 feeds per day. At weekends she has an extra feed or 2 and when she's ill she feeds a lot and my supply has always adjusted well. I've also been able to miss the odd night and/or morning when travelling for work and had no problems whatsoever, so it can be done.

My DD had one bottle of formula in the day when I was at work but as Moondog says, you can get away with only giving you DD water or diluted juice.