I wanted to share a few tips for pumping breast milk. I worked a full-time job until my third child was born and was able to breastfeed my first two babies exclusively without any formula for about a year each. I’m not trying to brag or say that using some formula is bad, I’m just saying it can be done. I had a wonderful workplace and a very supportive boss. The place that I worked had a mother’s room with lockers, a refrigerator and a nice chair for breastfeeding moms to go pump. That was a blessing and I think more workplaces should offer this. If you don’t have that luxury maybe you can ask for a vacant office or something like that. Talk it over with your employer and hopefully they will be understanding.
First thing is you need a good electric double pump. I know these can be pricey, but they are worth it. I’m not sure what the policy is now, but I got mine for free through the WIC program since I was working a full-time job. Now if you are not working but just want to pump occasionally to get a break or to leave with a babysitter then a slightly cheaper single pump might suffice, but I would still recommend an electronic one because the manual ones wear you out!
Pumping was actually kind of hard for me. The milk doesn’t just come out like you think it would. The shields feel nothing like baby’s mouth and the motion is not the same either so it actually may take a little concentration. When I went to pump I took a picture of my baby so I could focus on them. Then I would inhale deeply and exhale slowly to focus on getting my milk to ‘let down’. This may not be the case with everybody, but being in a little room, by yourself, with your breasts exposed and a noisy machine hooked up to them sucking on them is not the most comfortable of situations! But I was determined to breastfeed (I’ve always been a little stubborn) and was going to do what it takes.
Time is also a factor. My boss let me take two, twenty-minute breaks one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Some may prefer to take three, fifteen minute breaks, whatever you can work out with your workplace that fits you both.
I had a double breast pump and was usually able to get about four bottles out of the two pumpings because just going twice during the day I was pretty full. I would nurse the baby right before I left and as soon as I got home and it worked! If I ended up with too much milk I would just freeze it and save it for a day that maybe I didn’t get enough milk or for some reason missed a pumping session. I tried to pump as much milk as I could during my maternity leave early on while it was still coming in strong so that we had that back store if necessary, but we didn’t have to dip into it much.
If you have any questions about pumping breast milk feel free to ask me and I will tell you what I did or did not do. Happy pumping!
Succeed when you breastfeed 