Teacher Mommas - Pumping Question

asherk · May 2015

Alright, to my teacher mommas...

I am putting in my request for my off periods for next year, and I need some advice about pumping. I want to BF for as long as possible. Right now I will be taking maternity leave until mid-October, when bub is about 12 weeks old. DH will be the one to take him to day care since he works from home, so I will be able to nurse before I leave, sometime around 6:00-6:30. My workday is from 7:00 - 2:30, and my lunch is at 10:30. I plan to pump at lunch, but could I make it until the end of the day without pumping again, and keep my supply up? Or should I request to have the last period of the day off so I can pump again then? How often should I pump?

None of my coworkers have pumped at work, so I'm stressing on finding advice for this. I don't want my supply to drop when I go back to work and have to stop breastfeeding. My best friend is a lactation consultant, and she told me to just not go back to work, haha.

Thanks in advance for your advice!!

lizzypoo96 · May 2015

I work in a middle school, and the rule of thumb is that no pumping teacher should have to teach 3 periods in a row without a pump break. so in that case, 2 periods means you will be pumping every 2 hours-ish. your lunch might be a little early, but also everyone is diffeent and everyone's schedule is different

mommy1922 · May 2015

Gosh, that's so complicated! I plan to BF too, but I hadn't even thought about all of this... I have to check my school's policy.

dmh1687 · May 2015

I teach too, but I teach third grade, so I don't have off periods. It's going to be interesting..that's for sure. I return to work in November and I have a 15 minute break at 10:15 (UNLESS I have yard duty, in which case I don't get this break) and then a 40 minute lunch at 12:00. Not sure how I will make this work but there has to be a way.

asherk · May 2015

Yea, there's no real policy in place at my school. It was suggested to me that I 'request my planning periods accordingly,' but we get pulled from planning all the time, so I wonder how effective that will be.

Worst case scenario I'll probably have to get someone to cover my classes when I need to pump. I really don't want to resort to that, because I hate inconveniencing everyone else, but I guess that will depend on how flexible my administration is about all of this (spoiler alert - they're usually not flexible about ANYTHING).

daniellehoying · May 2015

I was worried about this also, my work day is from 8:00-3:30 & my lunch is at 11:45 & we are on block scheduling, so there are some days when I don't get a planning period (nothing like inconcisitncy!). One of my coworkers is a mom of 3 & breastfeed each of them for 1 year. She fed the baby right before she left, pumped at lunch, then left at our contracted time so she could feed the baby again. I also want to say that when the boys started sleeping through the night that she would still pump once a night just to keep her supply strong & build up a stockpile for when she went back to work.
Hope this helps

mnj05 · May 2015

I would check into laws about pumping opportunities for nursing mothers where you are as well; that could help you with decision making or in having conversations with your administration. A coworker of mine fed baby before she left, pumped at lunch (around 12:15 for her), then again the last period of the day (3:00) which was her conference. I don't know if she requested that or not and our master schedule is supposed to change quite a bit next year so I don't even know what to ask for myself.

lizzypoo96 · May 2015

if you're having trouble with scheduling, I feel like a union rep would help with that....

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