Breastfeeding while working

[blummy]

Dear mummies,


I am a mother to a going 3 month old beautiful baby girl and am enjoying every little moment with her. Sadly, I will be returning to the workforce next month but I am hoping to continue breastfeeding her to at least 6 months. To save me the trouble of familiarising myself with the breast pump , I have already started her on bottle and she has no problems latching and taking to the bottle.

Currently she consumes 120ml / feed with approximately 6 feeds each day. I am alternating her feeds with latches and EBM. At this moment, I am only able to express 120 - 130ml (both sides combined) per session and given that i need to set aside 4 bottles (120ml each) for her feed, it leaves me around 1-2 sessions of excess. However to sustain breastfeeding while I am at work, I realise that I need to prepare at least 120 bottles (3 bottles in the day x 5 days x 8 weeks) for the next 2 months. In fact, this has already taken into consideration pumping sessions during the weekends! In turn, this means I need to be able to set aside an excess of 4 bottles of 120ml each day, which is IMPOSSIBLE!

Would like to seek advices from working mothers who breastfed or are still breastfeeding while at work. How did you manage?!? Did you store that many bottles prior to going back to work? Is it advisable to pump after midnights as I am really worried I will continue to be a walking zombie at work -(

Any advice is appreciated!


Cheers!

 

[Gwynne]

Hi mummy, dun be too worried of storing a lot of breastmilk for ur baby girl. Just try to store any excess you may have now while possible. For example if baby tend to wake up less at night, you shld be able to have 1 or 2 feed to store daily. And also do note that while you are back at work, you are also bringing back milk daily if you are able to express milk at work. I had the same trouble as you before I went back to work, but now I am still storing some excess daily. I would think it is still better to express milk once during midnight in order to maintain ur supply. You can try to schedule your pumping hours to like every 5hrly so that you jus have to wake up once only. This is what I did in order to get sufficient rest. But I also turn in quite early usually 10pm. Following this, I'm still able to TBF my girl up till now though my supply is not as much as some mummies.

 

[blummy]

Dear gwynne,

thank you for your reply!

Unfortunately my baby still wakes up in the middle of the night to feed n her intake is still 3 hourly.When did ur Bb start sleeping long stretches? How old is your baby

Currently I only have frozen supply enough for 8 days ... Just feel so pathetic by the way, wouldn't pumping 5 hourly result in a decrease in milk supply? Go

Can share your pumping n feeding schedule for reference?

Cheers!

 

[Gwynne]

My girl is now 6mths plus and she started sleeping from 8-9pm to 6-7am waking up once for milk in e night since she was ard 2-3mths old.
Usually she is taking appro 100-130ml per feed 5-6x while I'm working. When I'm back home she would latch before she sleeps.
As for my pumping schedule, it is
6.30am pump
12pm pump
5pm pump
7-8 latch
1am pump
i would think that you have to try and see if longer intervals works for you anot because for me when I pump 3hrly I get ard 120-140 ml and 5hrly I get 200-220ml. So the rate is still ard 40ml per hr. not sure if ur supply works similar way as me though.

 

[ilovebbdylan]

for people with good supply 5 hours should be ok. but with low to moderate supply, the longer the interval the higher risk of milk supply dropping. normally not much change until a few weeks later u see sudden drop and then u might panick.

so u need to know yr body well too, menstruating will lead to supply drop also.

but also depend on whether yr workplace is friendly to working bf mum or not

 

[blummy]

Ya, am afraid that my supply will drop with a 5 hr interval. Will continue with a 3 hr interval first. Anyway going back to work, I an sure I will be forced to do longer intervals. So will let it take place naturally.

so now, looks like I will just hv to store what I have n hope for the best !

 

[diza]

I've started working and what I did was to freeze as many BM as possible. I started freezing BM abt 2 mths back. I pump after latching or before latching. This is to trick my body that I need more milk. I usually thaw 3 bags of milk daily (450ml in total). So I always make sure that I pump out the same amt everyday. When im at hm, i continue to latch and sometimes i still pump out coz my boy usually feed on one breast. But I have to admit that my supply drops a bit coz I can't pump every 3 hrs due to my schedule. Now, I can only pump every 4 to 5 hours.

 

[blummy]

I've started working and what I did was to freeze as many BM as possible. I started freezing BM abt 2 mths back. I pump after latching or before latching. This is to trick my body that I need more milk. I usually thaw 3 bags of milk daily (450ml in total). So I always make sure that I pump out the same amt everyday. When im at hm, i continue to latch and sometimes i still pump out coz my boy usually feed on one breast. But I have to admit that my supply drops a bit coz I can't pump every 3 hrs due to my schedule. Now, I can only pump every 4 to 5 hours.

Hi Diza,

How soon do you pump after latching and what is the gap between your pumping and latching? Sometimes my baby cries for milk just right after I've pumped and often I am at a lost as I don't think there will be enough breastmilk for her if I latch her. So I will reach into my reserves and feed her with the bottled breastmilk.

How much did you manage to freeze before you got back to work? Currnetly I only have 9 days of frozen supply while I need 40 days of frozen supply (after subtracting weekends) =( ... this is so stressful -(

 

[Shirix]

Hi Gwynne,

When you start pumping from 3 hour to 5 hour interval, did u see that the milk colour changes?? For me, there's a few times which I cannot pump on time and I drag till 7 hours. My milk have different colour in the first and second bottles. First bottle lighter in colour. I understand theres foremilk and hind milk but usually when I pump 4 hourly, I dun see the different.. Does it means that the foremilk will concentrate at the tip of the breast such that it will come out first? Then will I need to mix the 2 bottles so that my baby will have the same nutrients? Coz I know that foremilk is more for thirst and hind milk is more filling.

 

[Gwynne]

Hi Shirix,

There were times where I also pump at 7hrs interval cos I couldn't wake up at night haha. Well I would agree with you that the foremilk will be lighter in colour at first and slowly changes to darker white colour. I would also think that it's better to mix the milk tgt in a single pump session before distributing to feed to ur baby. )

 

[diza]

Hi Diza,

How soon do you pump after latching and what is the gap between your pumping and latching? Sometimes my baby cries for milk just right after I've pumped and often I am at a lost as I don't think there will be enough breastmilk for her if I latch her. So I will reach into my reserves and feed her with the bottled breastmilk.

How much did you manage to freeze before you got back to work? Currnetly I only have 9 days of frozen supply while I need 40 days of frozen supply (after subtracting weekends) =( ... this is so stressful -(

Previously I pump immediately after latching coz my boy didn't empty my breast and he always latch on one breast during each feeding. If while pumping and he cries, I'll stop or I'll get someone to bottle feed whatever amt I have in the fridge. If not enough, then I will let him latch. There will still be milk even after you pump coz pumping cannot empty ur breast.

I actually freeze abt 3l before my work resumes. I leave home at 6.30am and before that I will wake him up for feeding. Then by the time I reach home (ard 5.30pm), his total feeding is abt 3 packets of milk (450ml). After that I will just let him latch. If I'm not lazy, I will pump after feeding him. And in a day, I just make sure that I put 3 pkts in the freezer. On weekends, he's fully latched.

 

[blummy]

Previously I pump immediately after latching coz my boy didn't empty my breast and he always latch on one breast during each feeding. If while pumping and he cries, I'll stop or I'll get someone to bottle feed whatever amt I have in the fridge. If not enough, then I will let him latch. There will still be milk even after you pump coz pumping cannot empty ur breast.

I actually freeze abt 3l before my work resumes. I leave home at 6.30am and before that I will wake him up for feeding. Then by the time I reach home (ard 5.30pm), his total feeding is abt 3 packets of milk (450ml). After that I will just let him latch. If I'm not lazy, I will pump after feeding him. And in a day, I just make sure that I put 3 pkts in the freezer. On weekends, he's fully latched.

Dear Diza,
When u mention 31, u mean 31 packets or 31 days worth of feed (31 x 3 feeds)?
Also, now I m freezing 120 ml per feed but what should I do if her intake i? ncreases next month? How do I add more milk to the,frozen stock

 

[diza]

It's 3 litres.. I always store 150ml in a bag. My boy's intake is btw 100 to 120. If he wants more, my mom will just top up the amt. I don't count the no of feeds I need to store. As long as you have the amt of frozen milk needed for his feed in a day while you are away, you're doing fine. Let's say you thaw 5 packets, just make sure at the end of the day you pump out 5 packets. Therefore I always have 20 packets frozen in the fridge everyday.

 

[pinky80]

Diza, thanks for sharing in this forum. It is very encouraging to mummies who do not have plenty of milk but trying hard to breastfeed their babies. I must admit that I have become lazy lately but after reading your post, I am motivated to do both pump and latch.

I have not been pumping for a long time as I do direct latching. Going back to work next month and I think I have to start freezing some milk if possible and try to follow what you have been doing.

 

[blummy]

Hi Diza,

Thanks for the advice!

I suppose I can't really know if I'm storing enough or doing the right thing until I am actually doing it... then perhaps will have to modify from there =) I figured I will only be able to pump 2 times a day (1 x at work and 1 x at home after work). Hopefully can squeeze out a third bag in the middle of the night. If I can pump 5 bags, there will be a dream come true -)

Honestly sometimes feeding formula really seems so tempting... its so easy, convenient and really almost hassle free. So I always have to remind myself that its not mission impossible and most importantly, its for the baby.

So jia you, everyone! =)

 

[blummy]

Oh by the way, is it recommended for lactating mothers to take vitamins like calcium, fish oil etc? I haven't been taking any since my delivery...

 

[diza]

Actually it's recommended if u r still breastfeeding. I have to admit I've not taken them for more than a month!

Sometimes I'm lazy to pump out but the thought of giving my boy BM motivates me. As I'm teaching, I force myself to pump during recess time and if I have any meetings to attend after sch, I will pump after sch ends. Then, I will pump again when I reach hm. After that its fully latch. So on average, I pump every 4 to 5 hrs.

 

[3Cmum]

I have 4 kids, the youngest is just 7 weeks old. All 3 older kids were breastfed till 2 to 3 years old each & exclusively breastfed for 1 year, i.e. I pumped for 1 year & only started formula after 1 year. I'm working full time. Not to boast, just to let u all know it can be done! My experience for older 3 (& plan to do the same for youngest): I had trouble expressing at work, limited time & poor flow, could only get abt 120ml & only enough for 1 feed, but baby took at least 4 feeds while I was at work. What I did was pump at home after latching baby. Total pump 3 times at home, early morning, evening once reach home, & before sleep. Although originally little milk when pump immediately after baby fed, body adapted, supply was stimulated & eventually I could get 120ml each time for pump at home sessions. Btw, I still take multivitamin & fish oil. There are also supplements e.g. Fenugreek & various teas to increase milk supply.

 

[bertrande]

My baby is 5 months old next week and takes 120-130ml each feed, 6-9x a day (usually 7 or 8). She doesn't latch at all because of some reflux issues when she was 4 weeks and now she doesn't like my breast. I pump 7x a day by hand (i.e., I don't use a pump - I use manual expression) and make sure I get one pump in between 1am and 6am. So far so good, I am an average producer and get 1.1 - 1.2L a day while she drinks between 840-960ml a day, unless she's extremely fussy or undergoing a growth spurt in which case she will drink more than 1L a day. It can be done but it's very tiring and I look haggard and am a walking zombie most days! Aiming to do it until 6 months and then take one day at a time. Currently freezer has about a month's supply but I'm going away without baby for 2 weeks in March so that will be depleted very quickly (will be pumping and dumping overseas). I used to take all sorts of milk production supplements but they didn't really work for me. I now just take my usual supplements from gynae (fish oil, calcium, iron multi-vit).

 

[pinky80]

3Cmum, u can still get 120ml after latching? That is very good. How I hope I can achieve that too.