Pumping at Work

sbates208

Is it nessecary to pump while at work? I am going to be a 1st time breastfeeder and is there ways going around not pumping at work?

Mrs.0428

If you want to keep your supply up you have to pump for every feeding your LO takes a bottle for.  If not your body will produce less and you will not be able to pump enough at night for them to have BM the next day while you are gone.

 If you want to give your LO formula while you are at work it might still be possible to BF in the morning and night and suppliment when they are at daycare.

usfgirl97

If you want to keep your milk supply up, it is probably a good idea to pump at work during the day while you're away from your baby. My son is now 11 months and I'm still pumping at work to keep my supply up. Although, I'm not pumping as much now since we're starting to wean him from breastfeeding.

sbates208

the only thing is there isnt a place inside to pump besides the bathroom and its like a home bathroom 1 toliet 6 people need to share

usfgirl97

Yeah, bathrooms are probably not the most appropriate place for pumping. Could you talk to someone in your office to see if there is a private office/space you could use that has a lock on the door?

We have a lactation room in our office (but we have over 300 people) and after pumping in the very bleak room (just a table and office chair) for a couple of months, I finally got the courage to ask our HR if they could make the room more appropriate for pumping, i.e., provide a refrigerator, clock, bulletin board for schedules, mirror to fix clothes after pumping, etc... Surprisingly, they honored my requests and we now have a comfy pumping room, which in turn is encouraging some women in our office to pump longer.

Mrs.0428

My own option at work was a bathroom or my car too. I ended up putting a shower curtain up at my cubicle.  I close it when I am pumping.  In theory someone could look over the cubicle wall if they wanted too, but I feel if they do it's their own problem cause they don't look like nipples when they are in the pump anyway.

 Research breastfeeding laws in your state.  They may need to provide you with some place to pump other than the bathroom.

DallasHorn

usfgirl97:

If you want to keep your milk supply up, it is probably a good idea to pump at work during the day while you're away from your baby. My son is now 11 months and I'm still pumping at work to keep my supply up. Although, I'm not pumping as much now since we're starting to wean him from breastfeeding.

 I would extend this to say..if you want to keep your supply up...it's what would you feed your baby when you are at work if you are NOT pumping?

Like this posted, my LO is 11 months and I'm now just pumping in the afternoon, however, I nurse him at lunch.  I just dropped the morning pumping b/c he no longer gets a mid-morning bottle.