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I can still vividly remember..
The first day when I returned back to work..
My son was 3 months old.Not so young, actually.
Considering the typical maternity leave granted here is only 8 weeks.
But still..
That longer maternity leave did not give me the needed time that I desperately wanted.
It's still too short...
I still wanted to be with him.
That morning, I tried to smile as I woke him up from his sleep.
But I could not help to cry as I bathed him before leaving for work.
And I cried again as I boarded the bus.
Truly, being separated from your baby is emotionally draining.
And this is just one thing...
Now, if you are returning to work and want to continue your breastfeeding journey, there's a LOT more things that you need to prepare.
Separation with baby is only a small portion of it.
What about the caregiver?
What about the milk?
What about the pumping schedule?
If you are new to this, for sure you will easily feel overwhelmed and frustrated trying to prepare all of the thing before going back to work.
I've been through this twice and I know how challenging it is to prepare for your way returning back to work.
So, in this post, I want to share what I've learnt with you...
I'm going to share a step by step guide for breastfeeding moms returning back to work. I try to be as detail as possible, hopefully it will cut down the time you need to find out all relevant information.
More...
This post is part of PUMPING AT WORK series. Other articles in this series:
- How to build breast milk stash before returning to work
- How often to pump breast milk at work
- How much breast milk stash do you need | A case study
- How to freeze breast milk | 10 Things You Need To Know
- How to rotate breast milk stash
- How to thaw and warm frozen breast milk
- Breast milk storage systems | Milk Bag vs Bottle, Which One To Choose
- 10 tips on introducing bottle to breastfed babies
- How to maintain milk supply at work
- 30+ pumping hacks for working moms
Let's get started.
1. Ask Your Self, What's Your Why
That is, ask yourself, why do you need to return to work.
This may sound stupid, but leaving such a young baby under someone else's care is not an easy thing to do.
A lot of moms dreaded to return back to work just because of this reason (me included).
There were a lot of times when I wanted to quit doing this, stop looking for a new job (not easy when you took a 2-year break from work), quit working (this is real thing, it was just too hard).
But do you know what keeps me surviving at work?
What prevents me from quitting?
It's because I truly know why I need to return to work.
I truly know what's the consequences of me quitting.
"I know why I need to return to work. I know what would happen if I don't return to work. It's though, but I hang in there."
It can be a financial reason.
It can be a personal commitment.
Or family reason.
Whatever it is, you need to be clear why you need to return to work.
This will helps you stay firm and not giving up easily.
BONUS DOWNLOAD: Returning back to work can be overwhelming. Grab this 4-page checklist to help you remember all things you need to do before your maternity leave ends (also include extra important tips!)
2. Determine your breastfeeding / pumping goal
Do you want to keep breastfeeding after returning to work?
A lot of mothers say yes to this question, but how about the details?
Do you plan to feed your baby fully breast milk (by expressing and nursing)?
Do you plan to nurse your baby while you're around and supplement while you're at work?
How long do you plan to do this?
6 months? 1 year? 2 years? Or beyond...?
Your goal here will determine what sort of preparation you need to do.
By setting your goal, you'll keep yourself motivated to reach that goal.
You are putting commitment upfront and more likely to achieve success.
However, by all means, you should not push yourself too hard to the point that you are sacrificing your health, your relationship, and all. Definitely no.
Therefore, it is a good exercise to brainstorm with your spouse about the 'what if' situation. If this doesn't work, so what.
Having this kind of back up plan will help you to stress less and keep calm as you are tackling all the challenges you'll met after returning to work.
3. Gather your supply
You'll need things for yourself, things for feeding your baby (while you are at work), and things for your baby's caregiver.
I've compiled a list for this (this list is just the basic, btw, you can add as you wish), but hopefully it can help you to figure out what do you need to buy prior to returning to work.
PS: You can always start purchasing some of the items during pregnancy or include them in the baby registry.
For pumping milk:
- good quality dual electric breast pump (here's my recommendation)
- extra pumping accessories (think about extra pair of breast shields, a lots of spare membranes, valves, tubings - in case of accidental back-flow or condensation, car adaptor - if you need to pump in the car)
- breast milk bottles (I used Avent for both pumping and feeding, minimizing transfer between bottles).
- cooler bag (for transporting milk home or keeping milk chilled at work)
- pump bag (to carry your pump)
- pumping bra
- breast pads
- pump-friendly outfit
- ziplock bags / wet bag (to keep your pumping parts in between pumping session)
- hand sanitizer
- pumped milk tracker (to track how much you pump)
- sterilizer
For feeding your baby:
- feeding bottles (if different than the pump bottle)
- newborn teats
- bottle warmer (I've discussed the top 5 breast milk warmer here).
- baby bottle labels (useful if your baby is in daycare)
For your baby's caregiver:
- A leaflet about how to do pace-feeding (very important to avoid overfeeding), resources on child care and breastfeeding.
- a guide on thawing / warming expressed breast milk
- baby feeding tracker (to record how much milk your baby drinks in every feeding session)
PS: If you need a more comprehensive guide for pumping at work, I highly recommend you to check out some of these pumping and back to work course. It covers a lot of things a mom need to prepare from getting a breast pump, talking to your employer, to the extend of how to balance your motherhood -work life.
4. Try pumping for the first time
Don't stress yourself out when you try pumping for the first time.
You may get only drops or you may get an awesome 4 oz.
Either way, pat your self and trust me, you'll get better in pumping as you practice more.
Remember that the amount of milk that you get here is extra milk (if you are usually latch your baby directly), you are still producing enough for your baby and even have some to spare. Awesome!
BONUS DOWNLOAD: Returning back to work can be overwhelming. Grab this 4-page checklist to help you remember all things you need to do before your maternity leave ends (also include extra important tips!)
5. Test out excess lipase issue
As you practice pumping more regularly, before you start freezing a huge amount of breast milk stash, it is a good idea to test for excess lipase issue.
It's a complex thing (driven by your hormone) that can make your expressed milk tastes soapy / metallic / horrible after certain amount of time (or after freezing).
If your milk tastes awful, your baby may reject it.
Once again, I highly recommend you to test this because I've been reading a handful stories of mommas panicking because they cannot use their freezer stash due to lipase issue, and need to start from zero again.
Finally, if you do have excess lipase problem, find a way to scald your milk that you can do at home (or at workplace) after pumping, so that your baby can still accept your expressed milk.
Or, if you prefer not to scald it, find the work around. Some babies accepts mixed of freshly pumped milk and frozen milk, while they fully reject pure frozen milk. Again, you need to test it out.
Rebecca has an excellent explanation about excess lipase, see her video below.
And if you need more detailed step-by-step guide on how to test for excess lipase, how to scald breast milk, and what to do with frozen milk that already taste bad , I highly recommend you to read Rebecca's book: Why Does My Breast Milk Taste Bad (it's super detailed with printable charts and such).:
SEE ALSO: How To Freeze Breast Milk | 10 Things You Need To Know
6. Learn effective pumping technique.
A little bit of confession:
When I was about to return to work with my first baby, I did try to pump during maternity leave, but quit shortly because I didn't see too much milk when pumping.
Only one day before my first day back to work, I did pump again.
And I found out that I totally did things wrongly. I finally learned pumping as I pumped at work.... (and I wished I learned this earlier).
By learning effective pumping, you will be able to pump more milk and finish pumping faster (say no to one hour continuous pumping, shall we?)
I have a pumping 101 series that you can refer here to learn pumping from scratch, but here are a few important things to note:
- make sure you use the correct breast shield size (better comfort, more yield)
- test out how many let-downs are effective for you
- practice massaging / breast compression while pumping
- practice hand-expression / hand-pumping after double pumping (ok, it will take time to practice and actually do it, but it's totally worth it, trust me)
OR, take a shortcut and sign up for my effective pumping checklist.
Are you struggling to pump enough breast milk?
Get access to my best pumping strategies and start pumping MORE milk [FREE checklist]
7. Organize your freezer stash.
As you begin pumping regularly, you would accumulate some expressed milk by now.
Now, you need to decide how are you going to store your milk stash (especially if you're building a freezer stash).
Do you prefer breast milk bags or bottles (what kind of bottles: glass or plastic).
If you are still unsure about this, you can learn more about pros and cons of breast milk bag and bottle here.
In addition, you also need to start thinking, how are you going to rotate your freezer stash after you return to work.
Some moms prefer their babies to get ALL freshly pumped milk and just use their stash for stand-by, some moms combine daily, and some others have different ways to use both frozen milk and fresh milk.
Decide yours.
8. Check the date of your first day returning to work.
If you can choose or negotiate this date, it is better to resume work in the middle of the week.
Because what, the first week of returning to work is so hard, so if you can afford only to spend 3 days instead of 5 days before finally enjoying full day cuddle with your baby, then do it.
9. Build Your Support System
Don't try to do this alone, it's too hard and super challenging.
You need a good support system to cheer you all the way throughout your pumping journey, listen to your rant, and stop you for being overworked / too stressful.
Engage your spouse
Get your spouse on the same page with you pertaining your pumping goal.
And make him your accountability partner that will tell you to stop if you start going insane (because sometimes we as moms are pushing ourselves too hard).
Get a breastfeeding-friendly baby caregiver
The worst thing to do after returning to work is to have someone caring for your baby but not supportive of breastfeeding. Ugh..
By having a breastfeeding-friendly caregiver, you have trust on how she/he would handle your baby and your breast milk (and thus, knowing how precious your milk is and handle it with care).
Join a breastfeeding mom support group
It can be a local support group (or perhaps fellow pumping moms at work) or you can join online mom support groups.
The people there are soo supportive, because they either are in the same boat as you, thus can relate better, or have done it, so they are willing to share the experience and help with your difficulties.
10. Plan your pumping schedule at work
Consider these few questions:
- Do you need permission from your boss to have pumping breaks? Have you talked about it? Check your right as a breastfeeding mom (different company has different rule), and thus it is better to have this settled before you are returning to work.
PS: Jessica Shortall's Work. Pump.Repeat has an awesome guide about how to talk to your boss / HR / Colleagues about your pumping breaks and various hacks to make pumping at work easier.
- Where you can pump: is there a nursing / mother lounge room at your workplace? Or perhaps you can pump in an empty store room, your office / cubicle, cars?
- Where are you going to store your expressed milk at work? Is there any special fridge for moms, shared fridge in the pantry, or you may need to rely on cooler bag to keep your milk cold.
- How often you are going to pump? There's no exact answer for this. Some moms may be doing fine pumping every 6 hours, but others may need to pump more often, e.g. per 3 hours. Everyone is different. And it may be related to your magic number and breast storage capacity. Read more about this here.
11. Prepare your baby
If your baby has not developed a routine yet, it is time to start.
I'm not saying he needs to do things at exact time every single day, but if your baby and you can have a predictable pattern every day regarding his wake up time, feeding, napping, that would certainly be easier.
This will also helpful to decide what to do with your baby every morning before you leave for work (already wake up the nurse, bathe, solid food time?)
Determine how much milk your baby needs when you are away, and how many feedings he would get.
RELATED: How much freezer stash do you need?
How often to feed
Younger babies usually needs more-frequent, smaller feeds (e.g. Every 2 hours), while older baby can space out the feeding longer (every 3 hours or more).
Start transitioning your baby into bottles (or whichever feeding method you prefer) at least 1 week before returning to work.
If you can afford longer transition, that's even better.
Remember that this thing needs trial and error.
Your baby may reject the milk initially, you may need to experiment with which bottle and teats that your baby prefers the most.
Pheww... what a long post!
I know that this guide can be overwhelming, especially if you are just starting out.
So, I've prepared a handy 4-page checklist that you can always refer back again so that you won't miss a thing.
The checklist also includes several more tips that will make your returning to work more manageable.
Dr. Nina says
Breast-milk is definitely an incredible liquid, saturated in anti bacterial qualities. Proof suggests that these qualities stay, even if breast-milk saved and is indicated. Once you start pumping, it’s important to know how to safely store your expressed milk. Consider these do’s and don’ts for breast milk storage.
Rina says
Thank you for your input, Dr Nina. I agree that breast milk is an incredible liquid for babies and we should store the expressed milk carefully in order not loosing the nutrition content.
Feji ben says
Hello there,thanks for this awesome article it would be of great help to the public as it has been of help to me.i must say that you have done a very nice job on this article as it is interesting and has very useful information’s…my wife is currently of work due to our new baby and I think she would need this because she’s going back very soon.
Rina says
Hi Feji,
Going back to work after giving birth certainly has its own challenges. I hope this article can be a useful guide for your Wife as she prepare going back to work. Good luck!