I feel really compelled to address a touchy topic that has been catching my ears a lot lately. Breastfeeding alone can be tough, breastfeeding when going back to work can seem impossible. It doesn’t sound so hard when we are pregnant. You just take a pump with you to work, have an extra 15 minute break or 2, and pump during your lunch break. Easy, right? Until you first hook yourself up to one of those machines. It can be pretty easy for some, but for most, it’s nearly torture. The set-up, suction cup placement, then the many minutes of thwap thwap, suck suck, squish squish, squirt squirt, equipment cleaning, packing up, for almost nothing. There were many times for me where a 20 minute session on the very expensive modern pump yielded all of 1.5 ounces of milk. The time and effort needed to pump bottles full of milk to give to someone else to give to your baby while you are gone is immense and can be daunting. For many women, it’s a deal-breaker. Life can feel like a never-ending battle to get milk out of your breasts. And there are high stakes in this game. If you don’t fill these bottles, baby doesn’t get breastmilk!
OR, there might be another way, a middle ground, some grey area.
Here’s my advice. Give it a real, honest, hard try. If it works for you to pump enough bottles to fulfill the feedings when you are not there, great! If it is not working, don’t give up on breastfeeding altogether. Get up in the morning and nurse your baby. Get ready for work. Nurse baby again right before you separate for the day. Let your caregiver feed your baby formula while you are gone. When you get home, nurse baby. Then nurse again. Then one more time before going to sleep. Then nurse for night-feedings. Start over. You are nursing your baby 5-8 times a day this way. That’s great!!! Even if some are short, even if they are inconsistently spaced, even if you only nurse from one breast during your feedings, it’s GREAT! You will be giving your baby the benefits of your milk, and you will both adjust to this (boobs too). And you won’t have to spend precious hours on the pump. Remember that the schedule will continue to shift as your baby grows, and then one day very soon baby will be able to eat solid food while you are gone. It all changes so quickly.
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