Breastfeeding - back to work

[CatsBooksAndRain]

Hello,

Wanted to hear what strategies you're going for when returning to work from maternity leave after breastfeeding.

Is someone bringing the baby to you to breastfeed/ are you able to visit in the nursery?

Are you extracting? Extracting to feed later or just to keep your own supply while baby is getting formula or even cow milk?

Are you stopping to breastfeed? If yes, how did you introduce the end of it?

Advice will vary a lot depending on what age your baby will be when you go back. Mine were both 12 months and I was only feeding them morning and evening at that point so didn't have to think about it. 3 months would be entirely different.

I went back to work when my son was 7 months old. For the first couple of months I expressed enough for two bottles every day. I asked HR whether there was anywhere I could go to pump and they told me there was a lockable first aid room with a chair and a mini fridge in it. When my son was about 9 months old thr childminder suggested swapping out his lunchtime bottle for a yoghurt which he had as part of a bigger meal. This meant he only needed one bottle in the afternoon so I carried on pumping enough for that. I was still breastfeeding him first thing in the morning and before bed. When he was about 11 months old I wanted my period to come back so I could TTC again so we swapped the afternoon feed for cow's milk and I stopped pumping completely. I carried on breastfeeding him morning and evening until he was 16 months old and he self weaned. I was 4 months pregnant with his sister by then and barely had any milk left anyway.

I'll be going back to work again in September and plan to pump milk for her to have at crèche. I will have a small freezer stash but mostly plan to pump milk each day for the next day.

How old is your baby?

I went back when mine were both 9 months, they had a month with their dad and then went to nursery.

I just fed them morning and evening, and overnight as needed. During the day they had solids and water, and milk from a cup if they would take it.

With DC2 I went back during covid so we were all at home and I did do a daytime feed for the first week to feed her over for her nap but I found it very restricting and was very relieved when she went down no bother for DH the following week!

DC1 went on a nursing strike a few weeks after I went back and never fed from boob or bottle again - the only milk she had was what we could get in her food for about two months until she finally started drinking cows milk in a cup. Going through that made me much more relaxed about DC2's intake!

My son will be 12 months old, at the moment he's having a bottle of formula after breakfast and another after dinner as well as several breastfeeds throughout the day and night. Most importantly a breastfeed after lunch, two to go down for naps and one to go down for the night sleep. Plus a few smaller ones throughout the day and 2-3 more in the night when he wakes up and asks for it.
In other words: still breastfeeding a lot and timings all scattered about everywhere but also used to formula/ bottle, so I'm hoping that maybe he can have his lunch and nap time milk as formula milk once going to nursery and breastfeed in the mornings, evenings and nights, when I'm available.

DD was 13 months old when she started nursery 3 days a week. She fed before and after nursery. She'd have had a feed in the car park if I'd let her!! I didn't pump because I'd never been able to successfully pump. She didn't have any milk at nursery because of the lack of pumping. I agreed to them offering her cows milk when the others had some and although she wasn't interested at first she did decide she liked it after a few months. She fed 20,000 times a day when she wasn't at nursery though! We never had a supply problem (still going strong at 4).

When I went back they had formula while I was at work and breast milk when I was home. My supply settled really fast and I was fine to feed at night times, morning, afternoon and evening but wasn't uncomfortable during the day at work. It was like magic.

Mine were both a year old so only having a breastfeed on waking and at bedtime. So it wasn't an issue.

This sounds very sensible. Nursery staff are magic at getting babies to sleep so may not need milk for that.