Breastfeeding and shift work?

[Undomesticgodde55]

I hope I'm in the right place to post this. I'm hoping I'll be able to breast feed when my baby arrives later this year, I appreciate I have had friends/family who have not been able to do this may not even be a worry in the end.

I'm only taking 6 months mat leave, and then my DP will do 6 months shared parental leave. I will be working 12 hour shifts on an ambulance so even though work by law have to provide me time/place to express this is not really practical (Can you imagine the headline "new mum refuses to go to heart attack because she was expressing" I certainly wouldn't be able to live with myself in that situation). DP thinks we should use formula or a mixture of the 2, however I have friends telling me a mix of boob/breast will likely cause nipple confusion. I could express and freeze milk supplies and by 6 months the baby will be starting to eat solids, but when I'm back at work but would this make me uncomfortable in a practical job while working not being able to express for 12+ hours or does the milk stop quite quickly? I was hoping to attend a NCT class where I could ask all these questions but I'm assuming they will all be cancelled soon.

Sorry lots of typos in that - basically my question is how uncomfortable will I be when I return to work after expressing/feeding if I can't express for 12+ hours.

To be honest, it really depends. Assuming bf goes well for you, then you probably will be uncomfortable initially if you're not able to express. But if you are dealing with lots of call outs then you might only be able to express enough to alleviate the discomfort. Pretty sure you can get very discreet breast pumps now that you can wear as you go about your daily business so this might be an option. It will settle down though and your boobs will adjust. The main risk if you can't express is blocked ducts/ mastitis... you would certainly want to avoid this.

You could get an Elvie pump. It's pricy at £230 but you just slip it into your bra and pump on the go.

I'm also wondering the same thing for when I go back to work. I think I'll get the Elvie pump and just express on the go.

@snowybean we have both said if I express something like the Elvie pump is what we would go for - worst case while I'm having a bit of lunch I can pop it on to relieve the discomfort at work. So expensive but I think in this situation it would be worth the money

Elvie pump is a great idea. My friend uses one during meetings etc and nobody even notices so if you needed to I think you could do it while working rather than just on breaks. It's worth chatting to a manager just in case there's already precedent for this, you never know someone in the past might have paved the way. The other thing to consider is that your body will be used to feeds at certain times, when I worked shifts I found I needed to pump about 7/7.30 as that was DD's big feed.

Yeah, that's what I think too. We are lucky enough to have a 'wellness room' at work. One of its purposes is to allow mothers to have a comfy and safe place to express, and there's a fridge for you to store your milk until you take it home.

That said, I can't express and work at the same time. I don't have enough hands!

Not quite the same, but I went back to work when ds was 4.5 months old, and continued to bf till he was 2. I started travelling for work again when he was 6 months and expressed in all kinds of weird and wonderful places. He coped fine with it all, and we stuck to a 'rule' that if I was with him he bf direct and on demand. Only if I was working/away did he have EBM, and was also fed on demand.
BTW, wine cooler sleeves are a great way to chill down the expressed milk quickly before you put it in a cool box with ice packs. I had extra bottles for my pump so I could take a days worth of sterile bottles with me and two large bottles. Once chilled, I poured the milk into the large ones so it was all consolidated. If I was really on the go, I hand expressed directly into a milk freezer bag

NCT are offering virtual courses so do look at those.

If BF works I’d say that at 6 months it would be easy to combi feed if needed. We are at 6 months now, EBF and not used bottles but baby now drinks water from a cup so could have milk from a cup too, formula or expressed.

I have found BF easy but expressing useless so in your position I’d wait and see but do BF to start. If nothing else it’s bloody lovely not to be worried about sourcing formula right now!!

Yes it's likely you would get a bit engorged after 12 hours at least to begin with but your body would get used to it in time. The pump you mentioned is a good solution as it's fairly discrete.
Do you have access to a fridge for storing the expressed milk?
Combination feeding is a good alternative but best not to try establishing this until at least 4/5 weeks old and introduce bottles slowly, heavily favouring breast at least at first and you should be ok.

You will likely have a local breastfeeding group, have a search on facebook, most are offering support online while we are unable to run groups.

But as PP have suggested definitely ask you manager as you cant be the first breastfeeding paramedic, maybe talking to your union could be a good idea too.

Thanks everyone feeling a lot better about it all now, I'll have a look on Nct website about online training thank you. There is a Small food fridge at work - but I could possible bring my own fridge if I wanted to store milk (we have a camping/beer fridge in the garage) my main concern is how uncomfortable I will be working without expressing for long periods of time but you guys have reassured me my body will adjust pretty quickly thanks

Whatever you do, get baby used to a bottle early days-mine we’re both fed via breast and expressed from a very young age (1week!) and they had no issues. You get bottle refusal when you solely breast feed for months then try to introduce a bottle.
Speak to your work before you go back, there may be a workaround because not expressing for 12 hours will become painful, and you may also leak milk

I see you’re also asking about a fridge, I stored my pump and expressed milk in an insulated lunch bag in the regular fridge at work and there were no issues. I did it for about 6 months