Nursing and Working

Think many of the new nursing moms may face problem when returning to work, well, I just want to share my experience....one that I have been sharing with my friends when they need advice!

When I have my first child, returning to work after maternity was terrible! Imagine - I have to express milk every 3 hours, even in midst of meeting! Worst, when I need to visit sites where there are no nursing rooms, I have to do it in the toilets (well, hygiene still come 1st even in toilets).  Besides, I have to carry a big haversack just to "stuff" my electric pump and cooler bag! Then I have to worry about storage and sterilisation ...... gosh....those were the days....and now I really wonder how I managed to do that for 15 months!

So when my second child came, I decided to change all that. Well, my second birth made me more "productive" in terms of MILK supply! However, my baby was not a good "sucker" as compared to my first child and hence I experienced blockage! I decided to consult a lactation nurse and she made it right for me! She taught me how to regulate my milk flow before returning to work and thereafter I improvised and "designed" my own schedule to compliment my workday.

Firstly, I started with a manual pump instead of the electric one. This is because it's easier to bring to the hospital :). When I'm back home, I would use the electric pump at night when the baby sleeps or when I'm not nursing (though I still express every 3 hourly even if baby is not drinking). With the inter-changing of pumps, I realised that my breast is "trained" for both pumps.

So how do I do it? See, for the first 2 months, I nurse on demand, i.e. whenever my baby cries for milk or comfort. While nursing, I would also use the manual pump to express at the same time to help stimulate milk flows. In my 3rd month, I would start to "lengthen" my "pumping" intervals. For the first week (of the 3rd month), I would pump every 4 hours for the whole week, then, at the 2nd week, I would pump every 5 hours and 3rd week, I would pump every 6 hours. Important thing to note: MUST pump diligently at the intervals if you do not want lower milk flow. This is also the month that I started to "train" my baby to drink from bottle in the day and only to nurse him early in the morning and at night.

By the time when I'm back in office, I would be expressing every 6 hours. So my schedule is as follows: expressing at 6 am; then at 12 noon; and lastly at 6 pm. I did that diligently for 2 weeks then I adjusted my schedule again to time (yes, I'm talking about the clock time) instead of  the hourly interval.

I would express in the morning before going to work (eg, 6 am), during lunch (eg, 12 noon) and finally a last pump at 7.30 pm (when I reach home). I followed this schedule strictly for a week. This schedule is more realistics and easier to maintain and most importantly, my milk supply remains unaffected :) even if I had to "delay" one of my pumping time for about 1 hour later. The main "trick" is to keep to the schedule.

With this schedule, my working and social life was (sort of) back to normal....also, with the manual pump, I have less to carry.

As for sterilising.....I did not sterilise my pump at all! I just wash it with tap water after every pump and then store my pump in my cooler bag (yes! I stored everything in my cooler bag). But if you are still worried about cleanliness, you can always get the sterilising tablets from store. It does the same as your sterliser at home :)

...oh...one more thing, I have friends who asked me how I managed wake up to pump in the middle of the night since we are pumping every 3 hours. Well, I never did! I never wake up in the middle of the night to pump. That is when I realised that we can actually "train" our breast when to produce milk! It's all about supply and demand and brain power. Though I felt engorged for the first few nights but after that, my breast "realised" that there is no demand for milk at night, they "slowed down" the production and hence I can still express enough milk for my baby in the morning :)