Continued Breastfeeding while Working

A friend told me that she felt guilty going back to work after giving birth, she misses her baby a lot and she wanted to be the one to take care of her all the time, don't most of us feel the same way. But not all of us has the luxury to give up our career, most of us needs to go back to work to afford raising our precious little ones.

When I gave birth to my baby girl, I saw her eyes like her father's, I thought to myself, I'll love this child for my whole life and I'll give her the best things, everything that I can. I gave her the best milk, my milk. And I found that breastfeeding her is unlike anything that I could give her her whole life. I'm her source of nourishment and I'm giving her the best nutrients, I'm giving her things she could benefit for life. And the bond between us is so special...

But soon I had to go back to work, I remember how heart breaking it was to leave her with my mom. I missed her the whole day, everyday! But even though I'm a way for 9 hours everyday, I'm still able to give my daughter the best milk, my breast milk.

Breastfeeding needs dedications and this is how I'm able to continue breastfeeding while working.

1. I established my supply. The first 6 weeks are crucial. You might think that there's no milk coming out or that you don't have enough milk, that you consider supplementing with formula. If you want to be successful with breastfeeding, don't give your child formula milk. The breast follow the law of supply and demand, and by supplementing, you're telling your breast that your baby doesn't need so much and it wont produce enough milk. Just keep on latching your baby and have lots of skin to skin contact with your newborn. I didn't pump just yet, I just directly nurse my baby, and I don't follow feeding schedule, I nurse my baby per demand, which was every 1-2 hours back then.

2. Once my supply was established, I started building my stock. I only had two weeks before my maternity leave was up. I read my pump manual and gotten my self intimately acquainted with my breast pump. I'll pump during the early morning at around 4 am, I found that I produce more milk during this hours. And then while my baby is nursing on the other breast, I'll pump the other and then I try to empty both breast after my baby is done nursing. I use Medela 80ml Breastmilk Storage Containers. When I came back to work, I have a weeks worth of breast milk in the freezer.

3.Now I'm back in the office, my daily routine starts with pumping before taking a shower. If my baby wakes up before I leave I'll nurse her directly. At the office, I'll pump during 2 coffee breaks, 1 at the morning and 1 in the afternoon,I'll also pump during lunch, and before I go home. that's 4 pumping sessions in 9 hours. All my expressed milk are stored inside Hygeia Mother's Milk Storage Cooler Bag to keep them cool because we don't have a fridge here in the office. Once I'm home, all my expressed milk for the day are labelled and placed on the freezer, and my little baby is too happy to see me and to nurse directly.

4. You should always directly nurse your baby when it's possible to keep your supply up. Or you can take supplements like motherlove more milk to increase your milk supply.

I'm happy that I can continue to breastfeed my baby while working, I see that my baby is healthy and smart, that all the trouble of waking up early, bringing all my breastfeeding stuff to the office and pumping breast milk, I know it's all worth it.