Teachers and Pumping

lilswed

Hey all I will be taking maternity leave and then heading back to teaching - looking for advice on how other teachers made it work when you don’t always get to schedule your preps or breaks 

knottiec1bd6c5399b4642a

I'm a college professor, so my schedule is a little different. With my last baby, I'd pump before and after each class. I suggest talking with HR at your school. From what I understand, your workplace legally has to make accomodations for you to pump by giving you a place and enough time to do so. Good luck!

swizzlemalarkey

I’m not a teacher but I work in a restaurant so same thing with not being able to schedule pumps. One thing I’ll recommend is to try not to overthink it and worry too much. I was so anxious about pumping at work and made myself worry a lot about it. How old will your baby be when you go back?
my son was 9 months so I had a little more leeway with how often he ate plus he was doing some solids.
Something im glad I did was give myself grace and supplemented with some formula if I didn’t produce enough or have time to pump enough. So he’d have a formula bottle or two if needed, This eliminated a lot of my stress. Yes, legally our jobs are supposed to accommodate us. But for example, I am a manager so I wasn’t always able to just go and pump. But if your school has someone that can cover you for the 20-30 min you need that would be best. Also I would pump during my lunch. I think originally I wanted to pump 2-3 times per shift. I did two for a while, and then ended up going to one the older he got. After he turned one I stopped pumping. We also stopped formula around then and I just nursed before and after work. 
Any specific questions you have?

lilswed

Thanks!