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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Can you work full time and breastfeed?

66 replies

MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:06

8 years too late for me, but I've always wondered if what I was told was right

I successfully BF my DD but finances dictated that i had to go back to work full time when she was 14 weeks old. I told the HV that I planned to feed her in the morning, then express at work and then feed from getting home - so, 8am ish feed, express through day and then BF from 6pm onwards

She told me there was no way I'd be able to do it and to get her onto formula. So I did. I often wonder (now I'm older, wiser and not as "yes HV" as I was) if I could have continued?

OP posts:
theyoungvisiter · 07/02/2008 14:09

I don't know about from 14 weeks but a friend did it from 20ish. She did exactly what you describe (bf at home, express at work) and carried on like that until her dd was about a year, then switched to just bf at home, no expressing.

Worked for her - but her employer was good about giving her the time/space to do the expressing, might be harder depending on the job.

Original poster
MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:11

I think I'd have been ok at work - oh buggery arse. Thats two disapointments with my BF history

OP posts:
Oliveoil · 07/02/2008 14:11

maybe but it would have been a pain in the arse (or boob)

there is no way I would want to express at work tbh

yes, they have to give you a room to do it but I didn't want to make my way to a room that may as well have "Olive is expressing in here" on the door in neon

theyoungvisiter · 07/02/2008 14:15

oh don't feel bad mamag! So sorry, if I'd known it would make you feel guilty I wouldn't have posted.

TBH I imagine it would be quite a bit harder at 14 weeks - my friend's dd was nearer 6 months and was already on solids when she went back, which I am sure must help.

Original poster
MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:16

no no, tyv I did ask! Don't feel bad

good point olive - I may have felt like a bit of a twat

OP posts:
motherinferior · 07/02/2008 14:17

Marina expressed at work, I know.

I did for my second daughter - I worked four days a week - but being based from home (she was at the childminder's) I had quite a bit of privacy. It was certainly technically possible. I still look back in pride at the day I got most of a pint out. With a hand pump.

Original poster
MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:18

I suspect I'm looking back through rose tinted glasses though, a bit - I'm remembering my attempts to express and gazing dolefully at the 3 drips in teh botom of the bottle!

OP posts:
mrbojangles · 07/02/2008 14:18

Yes I did.

Ex breastfed untill I went back to work with ds2 at 20wks fed morn, exp at work, fed eve. Did this untill he was about 18months. I had already bf ds1 so felt pretty confident that I could do this which I am sure helped.
I should mention he was also on solids at 20wks as was the way 10yrs ago.

theyoungvisiter · 07/02/2008 14:18

lol olive! imagine the shame of inching down the corridor carrying your breastpump and smiling at Bill from Accounts in a sort of "breast-pump? No, no this is just my home-made sausage maker" type-way

Mikafan · 07/02/2008 14:19

Its what I'm doing at present MamaG and have been for the past 4 months. I feed my DD at about 6.00 a.m. Express at work at 9, 12 and 3.30 then feed her again at 7 before she goes to bed. By law your employer has to provide you with a clean, private room for you to express in aswell as access to a fridge to store your milk in. I intend to carry on doing this for another year if I can but I won't beat myself up if I can't - she's 10 months at the moment.

MommaFeelgood · 07/02/2008 14:19

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Oliveoil · 07/02/2008 14:21

did they create a special room for you? only here I can only think of the meeting rooms and they are always booked up

or the toilet...[shudder]

FioFio · 07/02/2008 14:24

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FioFio · 07/02/2008 14:25

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Original poster
MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:26

yes fio, i did try and was crap at it - I thought if I persevered it would work out in the end...maybe it wouldn't!

OP posts:
Mikafan · 07/02/2008 14:27

They did create a special room for me but thats only after being walked in on by someone in the original room I was given to use despite them telling me that everyone had been told not to use the room and it had a combination lock on the outside. I'm the first mum to return to work who wanted to express so they didn't really know what to do with me at first. I'm now in a 5ft by 5ft square room with a chair and table with small fridge on top. The room I can lock from the inside which I insisted on after being walked in on before. I'm getting more blase about it now but don't like hearing people walking about outside.

Fennel · 07/02/2008 14:29

I used to express at work, I worked at home a lot but used to express 2 or 3 days a week in the office, could have done 5 days like that too. I found it pretty sustainable, a bit of a faff but I did it for many months each time.

It would take maybe 10 or 15 mins once or twice a day, then I'd put it in the fridge and take it home in a cool bag in the evening.

I used to use my office when I had a private one, when I shared I used the disabled loo. Couldn't quite face the embarrassment of requesting a private room for it.

Oliveoil · 07/02/2008 14:29

I could express fine at home, even with dh sniggering at the side of me

I really don't think I could RELAX enough at work to do it

also, by the time I went back to work, I had had just about enough and wanted to pretend I was child free for the day

doggiesayswoof · 07/02/2008 14:30

MamaG don't feel guilty. Especially since you found you couldn't get a lot out by pumping. I was all set to go back and express every day at work (dd was 5.5 months) but I was shit at expressing and it wouldn't have worked out.

The only place for me to do it would have been my line manager's office - she was in theory happy for this to happen but in practice would have been a PITA i bet.

I was mix feeding anyway by the time I went back (looong unhappy story!), and managed to keep up bf morning and evening (and night of course...)

I think for a lot of working women, mix feeding is the compromise that works.

Original poster
MamaG · 07/02/2008 14:32

Thats what REALLY fucks me off though

the HV told me that mix feeding wouldn't work, and I should get her onto FF asap

WHY THE FUCK DID SHE TELL ME THAT!!!!! WHY DID I LISTEN?? Why am I so bothered 8 years later?!

OP posts:
FioFio · 07/02/2008 14:34

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doggiesayswoof · 07/02/2008 14:43

Yep - you listen because you are clutching at straws and you place your confidence in them. My hv ordered me to mix feed actually - if she'd said to switch to excl ff I would have been led by the nose I suspect.

bigbadwulf · 07/02/2008 14:44

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doggiesayswoof · 07/02/2008 14:45

HVs are good at sounding as if they know exactly what they're talking about - when actually they know a very little bit about a lot of stuff IYSWIM.

Most HVs don't see many women bfing for long - specially not in my bit of Glasgow - so they just don't have the experience.

elliott · 07/02/2008 14:46

I couldn't express at work - in fact could only really get anything out with a baby on the other side, which kind of defeated the object really!
Try not to beat yourself up about it.

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