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Breastfeeding at Work

Tips for pumping breast milk with ease

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Some breastfeeding articles suggest working mamas to go home to feed the baby or to have someone to bring the baby to them at work during lunch break. While this is not a bad idea, many find it impractical to do so. So pumping milk to bottle at work is still a better choice.

How to ensure you get the most from your pumping time at work?

The following are simple tips to help you continue breastfeeding while working.

Preparation In The Morning Before Going To Work

Get up a little early and breastfeed your baby before you leave home.

Empty both breasts by expressing out the remaining breast milk in the milk bottle after feeding. Then reserve the expressed breast milk for the next feed by keeping it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy your baby for a while before leaving for work.

What to Wear

Wear work clothes that make it easy for you to express your milk. Shirts or blouses that have button or zip in the front or pull up easily are the best. Try to avoid solid color and white clothing. Bright patterned or dark color clothing can hide leaking better.

Wear a nursing bra and machine washable or disposable breast pad in case of leakage (this is something we can't control very well). It's quite embarrassing when there're 2 wet spots shown on the shirts.

Do keep an extra shirt or blouse at work in case of an accident.

Breastfeeding Gear

Breast Pump

You need a good breast pump if you ever need one. An electric breast pump is better than a manual one. It's more powerful and able to express more milk with shorter time than a hand-operated breast pump (not to mention less tiring, too). Of course it's slightly more expensive but I think it worth the money spent.

However, a breast pump is not necessary needed if you know how to express your milk with hands. I've chosen this method after I failed to use the electric breast pump (for some reasons the breasts just wouldn't let down no matter how I twisted and turned the breast pump to stimulate the breast)!

So out of frustration, I massaged and pressed on my breasts. And ha, the milk suddenly flew out like tab water. With my left hand holding the bottle and right hand pressing the right breast, and then right hand holding the bottle and left hand pressing the left breast, I managed to express breast milk at work until the baby weaned himself.

(Do remember to wash your hands before expressing!)

Milk Bottle

You may need 2 big milk bottles (8oz or 240ml) for one pumping session (depending on how much your breasts produce).

But usually 1 is sufficient. Sterilize the bottle at home. After colleting the breast milk, put the bottle to a zipper bag and store it in the refrigerator or a portable cooler.

Portable Cooler

This is not really needed if there's a refrigerator available in your office and provided you are ok to put your breast milk in it.

My suggestion is to get a portable bottle cooler for yourself, because you may not want any curious fellow to hold/touch the bottle or even try out the breast milk!

There's some nice portable cooler in the market just for storing pumped breast milk. Get some plastic freezable ice pack (frozen at home the previous night) in the cooler. You'll have a very secured and ideal place to store your breast milk before heading home in the evening.

A Conducive Location

We need a private room to express the breast milk. This is really a basic need! I would suggest making use of any room, store room, manager's room, conference room, training room, etc, any room that would give you total privacy for the duration of your pumping session.

What if we can't find a suitable place to express our breast milk in the office? If the office nears shopping complexes, walk some extra steps to go to the baby room or changing room there. Some shopping malls do have really nice baby rooms, either small private rooms or a big public room with several partitions separated with curtains.

However, one place you should totally avoid...that is the toilet, rest room, wash room, ladies, loo, or whatever you call it. We don't eat in the toilet, so don't make our baby's food there, either! It's utterly unhygienic.

Breast Milk Pumping Session

When to pump? This depends on when your breasts are engorged and when you can afford to spare some time to do the milk expression.

While we can't simply use company time to do our own business, use the time you have at work as efficiently as you can. Try to schedule your time so that you don't wait until your breasts are engorged.

For most working mamas, lunch time is the best. You don't have to rush and the one hour break is normally more than sufficient to complete the pumping.

When you are pumping, do think about the baby and something nice. It sure will encourage let-down and less time is needed and more milk can be expressed.

What if we need more than one pumping session? If you really need to, try to use the tea break. Whenever it is, it's best if you can have someone acts as your backup at work to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings which may affect you and your milk production later.

A Very Important Note

Whether it is at work or at home, it's best to wash your hands before expressing your breast milk. The table or area where you are pumping must also be clean. And not forgetting the pumping equipment (not the motor) and bottles are washed and sterilized, too.

After completing pumping each time, thoroughly wash your pumping equipment with soap and water and let it air dry. If not in use, the portable cooler and ice pack should be washed clean.

All the above cleaning steps help prevent germs from getting into the breast milk.

Feed your baby as soon as you get home, and as often as he needs to at night. Night feedings will boost your milk production the next day.

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