In a lot of pain by the end of the day!

[JellyBellies]

Hi,

I have a 13 month old Ds who is BF. Once a week I have to go to my office which is a e hour commute door to door. So its generally a 12 hour day and by the end of it I am usually in a lot of pain as I am engorged and full of milk! So I am waiting to got to DS to feed him!

This week I might have to stay for a extra hour due a meeting and I am dreading it as I know I will be in a lot of pain. But I don't know if I have a reasonable excuse! Is it OK to say that I cannot be away from DS for so long because I am BF him?

I have thought of hand expressing a little but I have never managed to get the hang of it. Is it something that can be done quite easily when you are engorged?

I did originally post this under Employment issues and it was suggested that I might get more help here

Thanks

*which is generally a 3 hour commute..

Anyone?

Jelly, gentle hand expressing should be done before you get badly engorged - it's less painful that way and your are less likely to bruise.

Your HV, or a breastfeeding support group, should be able to help you with technique.

It will prob only need a few minutes of your time (you'll need privacy ).

OTOH, nothing wrong with saying you cannot stay for longer b/c of breastfeeding - employers cannot insist on you doing work that interferes with you continuing to bf, and there is also a health and safety issue here, too.

Hope this helps

Thanks tiktok! Would you way it is somehing that I can get the hang of immidiately ? i'm thinking of expressing tomorrow at work. The only thing I'm worried about is that I will trigger a let down but will not be able to empty the breast. Which will make it worse

worst case scenario though, I won't stay, no has said I have to but was checking just in case

If you google hand expressing breast milk video you'll see some clips that show you what to do - it's honestly not difficult.

You may well start a let down, but that's no big deal. Just pop a breast pad in. When you stop expressing, there may be a spurt or two for a bit and then it will stop. You will not drown