Pumping at work question

Laurenlavay · May 2014

Hi ladies! I mostly lurk here and I find all of your advice very helpful. Hoping you can lend me some support on this. I'm on mobile so sorry for any crazy formatting.

LO is 16.5 weeks and has been EBF since birth. I'm an nurse and work 12hr shifts 3x/week (7a-7p). During a typical work day, I feed her when I wake up, around 5:30, pump before I leave the house at 6am, pump 3x at work, pump when I get home before bed at 9:30pm, and feed on demand during the night (recently every 2-3hrs.) On my days off I only BF (no bottles).

Before I started back to work, my LC suggested I pump 3x/shift. During some of my work days I am unable to pump 3x...sometimes only 1-2x...bc my employer is not able to give me a break.

My first question is how would you handle this situation? Do you think two pumps during the day a few days per week will affect my supply? Should I address this issue with my boss?

I plan to chat with my LC about this too but I'd love your feedback.

Thank you!

Ridgebackmom · May 2014

I think that only pumping 2x a day during 12 hrs is not enough. Your body will only make enough for those 2 pumps. I think 3 at the least! GL with talking to HR!!

BootsOrHearts · May 2014

I think with the new law under ACA, all employers regardless of size have to allow breaks for pumping until your child is 1 year old, and they have to provide a private space for you.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/

Agree with others, 3 times is really the minimum you should pump during a 12 hour shift. Ideally you want to pump once for every bottle your baby has! Even 5 or 10 minutes is better than nothing if you're busy but they have to allow you the time to do it.

Laurenlavay · May 2014

Thank you for responding!

I spoke with my supervisor this afternoon after my 1st break (at 11am, wtf) and her response boiled down to "well 3 breaks is a lot of breaks and I'm doing the best I can."

I explained to her that if I don't pump, baby doesn't eat the next day. Hopefully that makes her realize how important it is to pump multiple times per day.

I like the idea of pumping for only 5-10mins when I get a chance. But the thing is that i work in an operating room so I can't just step off the floor when I get a free minute. I'm literally confined to whatever OR I'm assigned to for the day from the start of a surgery until the end of it. Another nurse has to come and relieve me and that is where the issue is...they don't often have staff that aren't busy with another surgery.

I've told them that I am comfortable going between surgeries but the cases that I have been assigned to are lengthy (4hrs +).

If things don't improve my next step is to go to HR.

Thanks for reading this novel. I'm all ears for other suggestions!

BootsOrHearts · May 2014

That's a tough situation. It's not like they can stop the surgery for you to take a break right? Ha! Maybe you can ask them only to assign you to the short surgeries for a while, or maybe there's a different role you could move into for the next few months that will allow for more pumping, like in a more administrative capacity? Which may be super boring compared to surgery. :-/

Laurenlavay · May 2014

Haha it would be nice! I'm going to try the shorter case approach and see if my manager can swing it.

sishamarie · May 2014

@Laurenlavay‌, Im so glad to read this.. I literally teared up. Im also a nurse 7a to 7p. I work cardiovascular ICU. Im currently on maternity leave and there is not a single day that i don't worry about going back to work. Being a nurse is soo busy, labor intensive. On a regular day before having the baby we are lucky if we get to eat and pee then add pumping... So stressful and stress is sooo bad for supply.. Im also worried about sanitizing my pump parts and cleaning.. How do you go about it?

bossyfnp · May 2014

Im also in the healthcare field and I at least can at minimum get 3 pumps in at work and 1 pump when I get home. Its hard and the patient load is so up and down that sometimes I have to halt production and say "hey I gotta pump". When I was having trouble getting the time in, I had a talk with my boss and told her that its my right to pump. She basically replied "Do whatcha gotta do". I ditto the suggestion of rinsing and putting pump parts in the fridge. I also say if you got 10 min do 10 min.

Laurenlavay · May 2014

casey78 said:

theresat858 said:

sishamarie said:

@Laurenlavay‌, Im so glad to read this.. I literally teared up. Im also a nurse 7a to 7p. I work cardiovascular ICU. Im currently on maternity leave and there is not a single day that i don't worry about going back to work. Being a nurse is soo busy, labor intensive. On a regular day before having the baby we are lucky if we get to eat and pee then add pumping... So stressful and stress is sooo bad for supply.. Im also worried about sanitizing my pump parts and cleaning.. How do you go about it?

This is one thing you don't have to worry about. Just throw everything in a cooler bag (in a zip lock or reusable wet bag) and reuse at the next pumping session. BM is good for 6-8 hrs at room temp and 3-5 days in the fridge, so this works just fine for pump parts at work.

Agree.

I do this. Sometimes use the Madela wipes to wipe everything down before I put them back in the cooler. If you are worried about sanitizing you can also get the Madela microwave sanitizing bags.

I talked with my boss yesterday afternoon and she seemed almost offended that I needed to pump so often. I gave her some time to think about it a bit and sent her an email later in the day, giving some of the suggestions mentioned here so hopefully something works out. If not, at least HR will see (in writing) that I've made an effort to be flexible in the situation.

vterp · May 2014

I talked with my boss yesterday afternoon and she seemed almost offended that I needed to pump so often.

Ugh. I'm sorry your boss is being this way. Remind them (and HR if you need too) that this is a temporary situation that they NEED to accommodate. I'm very fortunate to have a boss who is a Mother of two small girls herself. She even made the analogy to me once that no one would force you to go all day at work without emptying your bladder, you can't go all day without emptying your breasts either.

sishamarie · May 2014

Wow great thanks! Im so glad I asked.

marczewski · May 2014

Another icu nurse here...I work 7p to 7a so I'm fortunate in that I can get by pumping on my ride into work and then 2x overnight. I've been back I work since December and still going strong. It's hard though. I am constantly worrying about when I will have a chance to pump and getting interrupted by other nurses watching my pts while I am pumping. To make things a bit quicker and easier, I pump in our locker room on my floor so I don't have to waste time going to the hospital pumping room. It's really stressful though...people just sort of babysit my pts while I am pumping so if I'm particularly busy or getting an admission it's hard to sneak away. Luckily, I too work with a supportive staff.

Anyways, I think you should push to be assigned to shorter surgeries. I get it that they don't have the staff to relieve you that frequently as it sounds like they would prob have to pay an additional nurse on the days you work to allow for your pumping breaks. There has to be some way to make this work with the staff they have tho. Also, I'd suggest maybe adding a pumping session on days that you don't work to make up for any short comings in milk that you may have on days yo

marczewski · May 2014

*you work. Good luck. Pumping at work is hard!!

Want a personalized experience?

Pumping at work question

Re: Pumping at work question

Choose Another Board

Search Boards