Pumping & returning to work

M

merrymum

Registered User
I have a 2 week old baby and am BF exclusively.
I will return to work after Chinese New Year and would like to continue feeding him breastmilk (expressed while I'm at work) - any advice on when I should start pumping a breastmilk supply? Thanks!
 
you can start pumping whenever you need to. when i was on my maternity leave, i started to pump when i was "over"leaking and also pumped when i had to leave my bubba for couple of hours. i restarted work last month and expressed milk in the night and in the morning (the more you pump, the more is the flow of breastmilk). coz he drinks a lot, my helper had to feed him formula after he finished the stored milk. i think that you should introduce bottle-feeding to your baby asap so he gets used to the bottle as well as your breasts.
 
LLL in Hong Kong has an email list for mothers who are working and breastfeeding. You are very welcome to join, lalecheleaguehongkong-working : LLL-HK Working Mothers Support

The usual recommendation is to directly breastfeed for as long as possible and definitely for the first four to six weeks. Start to pump about two weeks before returning to work in order to build up a supply of expressed milk for your return.

Remember that it is harder to build up a supply when up are breastfeeding and pumping (before you return to work) than pumping instead of breastfeeding (once you are back at work).

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Hi

In my experience, it is possible to keep feeding once you go back to work but it takes a bit of planning. I followed parts of the Gina Ford book which recommends pumping after every feed to increase supply and to build stocks in the fridge or freezer for any growth spurt periods.

I managed to BF my son until he was 11 months old and I returned to work when he was 12 weeks old. I used to feed him myself at 7am before work then pump at work at 11am and 3pm and then feed him when I got home at 6.30pm. He would have a formula feed at 10pm and I would express at 10pm and that milk would be used to cover some of the next day's feeds while I was at work.

If you are able to sterilise the pump and bottles at work (and have somewhere appropriate to pump) then you could keep the milk you expressed but there was nowhere for me to pump except in the bathroom which did not feel hygenic to me - so I pumped and threw the milk away (just pumping to keep up supply). It was a pain but I wanted to keep feeding for as long as possible so I stuck with it. I was also fortunate that I only worked 3 days a week so for 4 days a week I feed my baby almost exclusively myself (except for the 10pm formula feed).

Good on you for seeking ways to try and keep it up when you return to work.

SB2
 
I returned to work when my first was 4 months old. By then, he absolutely refused to take the breastmilk in a bottle, cup, spoon, etc. I worked out this crazy arrangement with my employer to work from 7 to 3:30pm, would nurse in the morning, go back home for lunch at 11:30 (I lived about a 20' taxi ride from work) and again when I got home. He would get another feed before going to bed and one or two more in the middle of the night. I did this for about 6 months until he was doing well with his solids, but managed to nurse him until he was weaned at 17 months.
 
Many thanks to Sarah, who showed me how to get the baby to latch on properly, three weeks after he was born. Am still nursing the second, who's now 19 months, but that's much more doable now that I'm no longer working outside of the home. :)
 
I'm currently BF morning and night, but decided not to pump at work during the day (it was trade off in order to leave bang on time to get home for the evening BF).

My son is 9 months old and gets 1 formula feed and 1 of EBM while I'm away - however the frozen EBM is soon to run out. I did the same as SBs2, pumped after every feed in the first months to build up my freezer supply.
 
My first pack of frozen EBM was at about 4 weeks. I pumped whenever I felt full and when my baby fed on one breast, I would empty the other one by pumping. I was diligently doing this every 3 hours or so to build up my milk supply such that I could freeze at least 1 pack of 120ml per day. I ended up with around 50 packs of frozen EBM by week 13 when I went back to work.

Thereafter, even though I pumped twice at work, my milk supply slowly dwindled and my frozen supplies were gone in 4 weeks.

I started bottles around week 4.
 
It does differ a lot between different people. I was fine with supply when I was pumping at work but it was a pain having to do it twice a day. Once baby got to 7 months and well established on solids, we dropped the 11am feed and I didn't pump. The 3pm one was next to go so by the time he was 11 months, I was only feeding him in the morning before work.

SB2
 
I started pumping about 2 weeks before I returned to work (DS was 9wks when I went back) so that I was used to the pump and had some milk ready. You don't really need to prepare much. Enough for your first day back is the minimum, but it's reassuring to have extra just in case.

We introduced the bottle when DS was about 4 wks old. He was fine and never had any issues going back and forth between the breast and the bottle until I was home all summer nursing directly and he forgot how to bottle feed!

Pumping was hard in the beginning but it's become routine for me. I'm still pumping at work and nursing at home and my son is 22mnths old.

Also, you don't need to wash or sterilise your pump parts at work. I put mine in an airtight lunchbox (or you can use a ziploc bag) and stored it in the fridge at work. That saved time.
 
I started pumping a little more than a month before I went back to work in order to store up a supply in my freezer. I knew that I would not be able to pump enough milk in one day for all the feeds I would miss the next day, so I wanted to make sure I had freezer stock that I could use. Once I returned to work when my son was 4 months old I pumped twice at work on weekdays and once on Sat and Sun. The weekend pumps were to replenish my freezer stock. Occasionally I would come home to feed my son at lunch too - but that practice has long stopped.

My months is 8 months old now and about a month and a half ago because of how busy work was, I went down to just one pump a day and now I'm not even pumping at work anymore. I just pump right when I get home. Luckily, my son is eating two solid meals a day now, so his milk intake is less.

Pumping takes a lot of perseverence when you work full time. Good luck!
 
hi everyone,

thank you so much for sharing your experiences and advice. i have started expressing in the mornings before/after his 7am feed and will start pumping after his 10/11pm feed as well to start building that supply.

i am now trying to overcome another challenge where the little one is now cluster feeding! didn't know that i can get even less sleep than i did previously! =P
 
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