Going back to work and expressing - is it feasible?

[knickerelasticjones]

Hi all

Looking for a little advice here - especially from any BFing counsellors who might be floating around...

I'm going back to work at the end of January when DD2 will be nearly 6 months. She is exclusively BF'd at the moment and I would like to continue BFing her as long as possible.

I work two days a week (mon / tues) but the problem is my shifts are very long hours. On an early shift I will be away from her from 3.30am - 2.30pm approx. On a late shift I'll be away from 11.30 am until midnight. (The shifts change from week to week) So depending on her waking time I could go for nearly an entire day without actually feeding her, but just expressing milk. (And bless my DH who has to deal with two DDs all on his own because of these crazy hours!)

Obviously I plan to express at work, but I'm just concerned that the long hours away may play havoc with my milk supply and I then might have problems feeding her the other 5 days of the week when I'm at home.

Also - I'd really appreciate any advice on what breast pump to get for maximum efficieny. I've already got a manual avent one, but given the time pressures I'm wondering whether I should invest in a full scale double electric pump.

Sorry that's such a big ramble - but any help / advice / wise words would be greatly appreciated

thanks!

I used to leave at about 8 and be home about 6. I was able to express every 3 hours or so in the day - battery operated pump and the baby was just fed my milk. I did that 3 times. What always surprised me was at the weekends the supply just seemed to work I suppose because I was expressing the same amount that the baby would have taken from me had I been there.

I found the battery one much better than a manual one and it wasn't very expensive and small enough to fit in a tiny bag.

And I bought a book on breastfeeding and work which was helpful although this was in 1984 (and that first baby is 23 years old now)... but I'm sure it is as workable today as then.

As long as you can express, you'll be fine. I expressed 5 days a week from 4.5 months to 14 months, and am still feeding at 18 months, and didn't use any formula. I also have to go away overnight fairly often.
Its def worth buying a double electric pump - makes life much easier and faster to express too. I have the Ameda Lactaline, and bought it on ebay for £50 ish.

I left about 6.25 and got back about 6, managed to carry on exclusively for about 2.5 months but using a lot of frozen milk - just couldn't express enough. BUT I was didn't do it well at all in terms of putting myself under pressure - was getting up at 5.45, feeding before I left, cycling 16 miles a day, getting a lot of sh1t at work (boss gave my job to my maternity cover etc. and gave me a completely new one then expected me to be up to speed immediately) totally stressed and depressed, probably not eating enough etc. Also didn't really give myself enough time to express and was always wound up about being away from desk (given above). I managed to do about one and a half/two feeds a day (one per expressing session plus some from simultaneous feed/express at 5.45 before I left) but DD needed (5.5 months when I went back ) three whilst I was away so got through at least one frozen one per day.

I think it's totally doable but be as easy on yourself as you can and try to be relaxed about it - eat enough and don't do too much exercise!

Good luck with going back to work.

thanks for the advice - Scampmum, I live in Edinburgh and work in Glasgow so there is no chance that I'll be cycling to work!

I'm hoping it won't be too much of a problem getting the time to express, although on an early shift I'll have to express at 3.30am before I leave and then can't do anything again until just after 9am so hope that isn't too long a break.

I'm definitely going to look into buying at double electric pump - thanks for the tip cmotdibbler. I've put a watch on e-bay for a couple of electric pumps already - can't afford nearly £200 for a new one!

Did you find that you had any drop in milk supply on the days that you did feed your DC?

I'm doing 3 days at mo and so far dd has not had any formula. Been back at work for almost 3 months.

Next time I have a baby I'll def buy a double electric pump. I've just got a single medela mini. It takes on average about half an hour to get between 60 and 125 mls. I always leave about 150 mls minimum per feed so I express every day when I'm at home too. Also any holidays I express. It's def worth buying your breast pump asap and starting to freeze any little amounts.

I'm not an expert but I reckon your supply will be fine (maybe a little sporadic) because you're at home the other 5days.

Really good luck.

I had a single medela too and DD had six feeds of 180ml a day (thirsty little monkey).

Other thing was I was working four (consecutive) days. On the Friday, Sat and Sun my supply seemed to be fine and I could express more on Monday and then it would dwindle off until Thurs which was rubbish.

Oh, and my other top tip would be don't get those stupid little Avent pots which look like they're done up when they're not and then you get home to the horrible double whammy of no milk in the pot and milk all over everything in your bag.

I lied! I had two medela mini electrics and the bizarre handsfree unsexiest-peephole-bra-in-the -world to which I will try and find a link

I rest my case

The halterneck by the same make actually looks really good!

I went back to work at 6m, and weaned at 15m, and DS1 never needed any formula. I used an ameda lactaline. I did find my let-down reflex took longer and longer, in the end, but I always produced enough milk, and had a good supply in the freezer in case I missed an expressing session. Good luck

I used to feed as soon as I walked in the door which helped a lot too and my children all fed in the night until they were 1 year old so that probably kept up the milk supply too but if you've a baby that sleeps at night just enjoy that luxury. We didn't often have to use frozen milk. I had an insulted freezer bag and ice pack to take milk home in.

I think you can adapt to less although the less I expressed or fed the less milk I had.

I've found that ds takes very little milk when i am at work so that has eased the pressure on me to express loads at work. At nursery he takes more solids compared to at home, when he BFs more. My supply has been fine but I only work one day a week.

Thanks for the pic of the 'hands-free'bra Scampmum - gorgeous!

I'm reassured by all your replies - thanks! Its a good few weeks yet before I go back to work, but I'm going to try and get myself sorted with an electric pump and build up a decent supply of frozen milk.

thanks all

the only other cautionary advice is to make sure it's clealry labelled in the work fridge - I had nearly a full bottle of carefully expressed milk thrown away by some stu* woman who thought it looked a bit funny, and it had been in the fridge for ages, she then came to see me carrying the empty bottle like she'd done me a favour . No you plonker it's bm and if you ever looked at anything carefully you would have noticed that it's never there in the morning, and is every afternoon - doh emoticon

I kept my milk in a black washbag in the canteen fridge to ensure no funny comments, which worked really well. Until the day of Christmas shutdown when they clear out the fridge.. Cue much running round to find my bag and bottles again, and explaining that it was 'MY' milk that they had chucked. Very red faces from facilities...
Its worth getting extra pump sets too, as then you don't need to worry about sterilising/washing them during the day. I sterlised both sets and the bottles in the evening, put them all into a clean lock and lock box, and then put the used ones into a ziplock bag. Kept everything (including a book) in a rucksack so that it was all together, and kept batteries in the pump so that if the first aid room was in use, I could go elsewhere.
work and pump is a great resource.

I expressed for 8 months at work. I used an Avent hand pump which I found worked well for me - i was quite efficient at getting a good amount quickly.

You don't ned to sterilise inbetween times: the anti-bacterial nature of BMs means it'll be OK if you wrap all the stuff aup again and put it in a plastic bag back in the fridge. It even used to cope with a day's business trip down to London! (Leaving the house at 4.30am, back at 7.30pm)

I'm in Glasgow and at the time we had an office where I ouwld sometimes have meetings - so I have also expressed in the loo on the train between Glasgow and Edinburgh. Only when I was "bursting" though!

Thanks for the advice on sterilising - just as I went to bed last night I suddenly started wondering about that so you've second guessed me there!

cmotdibbler - I think I'll probably copy you and use a washbag (or similar) to keep the milk in the fridge. Just don't want too many questions / weird looks (which is entirely possible where I work)

Good to know that you managed to cope even on a really long day prettybird - My hours are long but not as long as 4.30-7.30pm so I can't complain!

I'm going to check out the Work and pump website now....

It was only when I had to go to London (about once every two weeks or so) - and I am really good at sleeping on the plane!

....now the time I had to express on an army barracks during a two day "bootcamp", borrow ice to store it (and explain to the army people why I needed it) - now that's a whole other story!

I just used to keep it in a plastic bag in the work fridge - just to keep it out of view from prying eyes.

this is probably a silly question but how do you all feed at the weekend without expressing? I would love to do that but have to express and feed DD from a bottle on Sat/Sun otherwise I won't have enough EBM to leave for Monday

What I had expressed on a Friday would be what I used on a Monday. I didn't even bother freezing it.

Also, when ds dropped his late night feed, I "kept" the time as an expressing time, to make sure I alawys had plenty of supplies in the freezer.

Nice one prettybird ! I did once have to explain to a Swedish male customer that I really needed to express at lunchtime - fortunatly they were terribly sweet about it, and let me use a nice room, fussed about getting me a drink, and the nurses wanted to clean the pump !

I always kept the milk at the back of the fridge over the weekend -SCBU told me 8 days was OK, but if it was a bank holiday etc I did freeze Fridays. DS rarely drank as much as I expressed, so I froze the excess, and when he dropped a daytime feed, I kept expressing the same amount for a couple of weeks each time (partly in case he decided that he fancied that bottle again), and rebuilt the freezer stash like that.

Prettybird, so is it ok to keep fresh EBM in the fridge for 48 hours? I expressed some milk on Tuesday which went straight into the fridge and my DD is having it today - will that milk be ok?

Thanks

It's a long time since I did it - but I remember that the storage times in the leaflet from the hospital were much longer that yuo would expected - and 48 hours were definitely OK.

Fantastic, thank you.

I think you can find the latest EBM storage times on the La Leche League site. Basically you can store in the fridge for yonks and it just gets better apparently - like curry when you leave it hanging around. It's all to do with those magic ingredients (in the EBM, not the curry!).

wow, thanks laundrylover, I didn't know that. Last time I looked somewhere it said you could only keep it in the fridge for 24 hours.