Have you recently had a baby, and you're heading back to work? If you've been breastfeeding, and want your baby to continue getting your breast milk while you're away, pumping is a great option to provide that, and to maintain your milk supply so you'll have plenty of milk for your little one when you're together. My son just turned one, and I pumped milk for him for nine months after I went back to work (starting when he was three months old). It's definitely no fun to be hooked up to a pump several times a day, but with these tips, it might be a little less of a hassle.
- What kind of pump? A double-electric pump is the best for convenience -- you can pump both sides at once, which saves a lot of time. Think about it. If you need 15 minutes for each side, you can be done in 15 minutes if you pump both breasts at once, or you can pump one side at a time and have to take a half hour. It's definitely a lot easier to fit in enough pumping sessions to maintain your milk supply if your breaks from work are shorter, and a double pump will make that possible.
- Pumping bra -- a lifesaver! Personally, I never got the hang of holding both sides of the pump at once, so my double pump was totally useless as such until I got a pumping bra. This nifty little device holds the flanges of the pump in place so you don't have to. There are several available to buy, or you can make your own using this tutorial from Jan at Sleeping Baby. I ended up buying one for about $40, and it was one of the best purchases I made in my son's first year. A pumping bra will get every day use (you might want two so you can wash them occasionally) and with your hands free, pumping time can truly be a little break for you to have time to do what you want -- read, knit, surf the web, or anything else.
- Nursing cover The way the university I work at is set up, there is one pumping room in the middle of campus, and a few others scattered around. None were closer to my office than a 7-8 minute walk. For a while, I used empty conference rooms near my office, but when my office moved in July, that wasn't really an option anymore. Sometimes I could schlep to the pumping room, but often things were just too busy. Enter the nursing cover. I had never really used my nursing cover for nursing my son because he hated having his head covered, but it's really useful if you have to pump somewhere that is less than ideal. Because I had my nursing cover, I could just pump at my desk, and I didn't need to take a break at all, which meant I got a lot more pumping done than I otherwise would have during busy periods at work when I really couldn't take a break.
- Olive Oil If you're having nipple pain, and you've checked all the obvious culprits (such as making sure you're using the correct flange size) and it isn't going away, olive oil is a great tool. You can put just a little bit on the flanges, and it will make for a much more comfortable pumping experience. I found that this was particularly important when I was pumping all week -- without the olive oil I got pretty sore!
- Company Does your employer have a multi-person pumping room? At first, this might seem like an odd arrangement, but it's definitely a good idea. You may run into the same women day after day who are pumping, just like you are. They know how hard it can be to pump, how you can have really mixed feelings about being back at work, and what it's like to have a little baby at home. Embrace the community that can build in this situation -- you've got your own little pumping support group built right in..
The final thing that kept me going, when the pumping got really rough was to pick a goal -- sometimes it was just to keep pumping for that day, that week, or that month, and then, when I reached the goal, I set a new one, and before I knew it, my son turned one, and I decided I was ok with not pumping for him anymore. Remember that the pumping days won't last forever!
Mira Whiting - Mira Whiting is a knitter and mom living in the Boston area. She blogs about knitting at Mira's Knits and motherhood at Mamas and Milk.
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