How Can I Pump Enough for my Baby When I’m at Work?

 Going back to work can be a very stressful time for many new moms.  It’s difficult to leave your baby for the first time.  You may feel nervous about returning to a job you’ve been away from for months.  Your schedule/routine may have changed due to child-care arrangements.  Plus, if you’re anything like me, none of your work pre-pregnancy work clothes fit yet!  A concern that often adds to this stress is the fear that you may not be able to pump enough for your baby’s bottles while you’re at work. Some moms find that they are constantly playing a game of catch-up, trying to keep up with their baby’s intake while with the caregiver.  Below are some things you can do to improve your ability to keep up with your baby’s needs.

Do some research before returning to work.

Most importantly, know your rights!  There is a federal law that protects your right to express milk for your baby while at work, in a private location, that is not a bathroom.  Speak to your Human Resources Department or direct supervisor (before you return to work) to find out where you will be able to pump.  Take note of where it is, how far it is from your work-space, and what equipment you’ll need to bring with you. Check to see if there are other breastfeeding moms using the space to express milk… that way you’ll know if you need to reserve the room or if you are free to use it as you please.  Take a look at your general work hours and responsibilities and create a plan for when you will be able to pump.  

Be sure your caregiver isn’t over-feeding baby!

Often, the issue isn’t the amount that mom is pumping (or not pumping), but the amount that baby is taking while in the care of someone else.  Many caregivers unintentionally offer too much breastmilk to babies, therefore “sabotaging” mom’s supply.  There are a number of reasons this may happen - your caregiver may allow the baby to finish the bottle too quickly and babies will take in more than they need when they eat too fast.  It’s similar for us when we sit down to a big meal.  If we eat very quickly, we often end up eating past capacity as our brain doesn’t have the chance to catch up with our stomach and tell us to stop eating.  A baby may finish a bottle and still show hunger signs, and the caregiver, wanting to soothe baby, will offer more milk when if given just a bit of time, the baby would have calmed on his/her own.  

Sometimes a caregiver may not understand the proper handling and storage of breastmilk and will treat it like formula, throwing any left in the bottle, when the milk could be placed back into the refrigerator for the next feeding.  Be sure to talk to your caregiver before returning to work to help them understand how to best bottle feed your breastfed baby.  Nancy Mohrbacher, IBCLC, wrote a wonderful article addressed to the caregivers of breast-fed babies that you can forward to your nanny/sitter/daycare worker to help them.  

Lastly, make sure your caregiver knows what time you will pick your child up and ask him/her to not feed the baby for the hour or so prior, so that baby will want to breastfeed when you are reunited.

Create a calm and relaxing space/routine for yourself while you express milk at work.

Trying to pump in a stressful environment can negatively impact the amount that you are able to express.  Take a good look at where you pump milk for your baby - is it a convenient, quiet, private space?  Are you able to lock the door so that you’re not worried about a co-worker unintentionally walking in on you?  

Here are some of our top tips for expressing milk at work: 

• Bring articles of clothing that your baby has worn, or a blanket he/she has used.

• Have a picture nearby of your baby, or even better, a video of him/her - perhaps of your baby showing hunger cues. These items can help to get your hormones moving which will help your milk to let down and flow more quickly and fully.

• Use a hands-free pumping bra so that you can do other things while you express - check your email, eat a snack, play scrabble on your smartphone!

• Bring a blanket or towel and cover the flanges while you pump, so that you can’t see the amount that is coming out. Hyper-focusing on how much milk you’re expressing can inhibit your body’s response to the pump.

• Listen to calming music, or a podcast you enjoy.

• Watch funny videos on YouTube - we have a few that are oxytocin inducing on our San Diego Breastfeeding Center YouTube Channel.

• Bring water and snacks to stay hydrated and satiated. Moms often see a dip in their milk supply when they are dehydrated or are not eating enough calories. (Breastfeeding women need about 2000 calories a day to sustain a robust milk supply.)

Engaging in activities that bring you joy or peace can help you relax and may increase the amount that you are able to pump.  You may find that you start to look forward to your pumping sessions!

Techniques that can help increase your output

There are a number of tips/tricks that can help you maximize your output when pumping.  

• Be sure that all of your pump parts are in working order - that there are no damaged pieces.

• Hands-on-pumping has been shown to help increase the amount of milk a woman expresses.

• Learn a combination of breast massage, hand expression, and electric pumping and practice it whenever possible.

• Apply a bit of organic olive oil to the inside of your flanges to help reduce any friction or discomfort.

• Play around with the amount of time that you pump, but remember that stronger and longer doesn’t always mean more milk!

• If you find that you are absolutely not able to express the amount of milk that your baby needs in a day, you can add an extra pumping session in at night before going to bed and on your days off.

Here are a few more tips from our Facebook friends: Help a Mama Out: Getting the Most Milk Out while Pumping

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, feel proud of the hard work you’re doing to provide your baby breastmilk while you’re at work!  Remember that breastfeeding is never an all or nothing endeavor.  Some women are not able to pump enough, some because of work situation or how they respond to the pump, but are still able to provide their baby as much breastmilk as possible, as well as breastfeed their baby while home with them.  Know that every drop of your breastmilk that your baby gets, whether it’s 1% or 100% of their total needs, is an amazing gift that only you can provide!

What are your favorite tips for pumping enough milk while at work? 

Top 10 Ways to Stop Caregivers from Overfeeding Your Breastfed Baby

I hear it all the time. 

Mom and partner get home from a much-needed date night to find out that grandma gave their 4-month old two 6oz bottles in 4 hours.

Mom picks up her baby from daycare to find out that her 6-month old took three 5oz bottles, plus the backup 5oz bottle in the freezer, in 8 hours.  She pumped 12oz at work and thought that would be plenty for the next day. (which it is!)

Mom comes home from getting a haircut to find that her partner gave their 3-month old a 5oz bottle.  The baby only ate 3oz, so her partner threw the extra 2oz away.

Who ever said there’s no crying over spilled (or wasted) milk never pumped breastmilk for her baby!

It’s hard work to pump… who has extra time when taking care of a newborn to pop on some plastic milk-extracting contraption and just sit for 15 minutes?  Um… no one!  So when a caregiver over feeds a baby, or throws away breast milk that could have been used at another time, it can be very frustrating and defeating for a mom.  And as that extra freezer stash starts to dwindle because of misuse and over feeding, moms might feel their stress levels spike to an uncomfortable high.

So how can a mom ensure that her baby’s caregiver isn’t overfeeding, or unnecessarily throwing away, that precious liquid gold she spent time to pump out?

Top 10 Ways to Stop Caregivers from Overfeeding Your Breastfed Baby

1. Keep bottles in small increments (2-4oz, depending on the weight and age of your baby) and tell the caregiver to wait in between bottles to assess the baby’s mood (to see if he/she is really hungry) – Haley

2. Use the slowest flow nipple you can find and use the 1oz per hour rule (offer 1oz per hour that you are away from your baby) – Miranda

3. Pre-make bottles in small increments. For example, leave two 3oz bottles so caregivers don’t have to divide a 6oz bag into two separate bottles. – Shelly

4. Go over Kellymom’s article with your baby’s caregiver, How to bottlefeeding the breastfed baby, which talks about paced bottlefeeding – Tova and Megan

5. After baby has taken the bottle, try other soothing techniques (i.e. rocking, singing, swaying, take on a walk) rather than offering more breastmilk in an extra bottle.

6. Keep a few extra 1oz bags of breastmilk in the freezer or fridge. That way, if your baby’s caregiver really needs to offer your baby a little bit more, it is a small amount and won’t go to waste.

7. Talk to your baby’s caregiver about reusing breastmilk. While there are no definitive studies that state the exact amount of time that breastmilk must be used within (once the bottle has been fed from), most lactation consultants believe that if a bottle of breastmilk isn’t completely finished, it is safe to place it back in the fridge and the remainder used within 4 hours. (Kellymom.com article - Reusing Expressed Breastmilk)

8. Use the milk calculator to figure out how much your baby will need per bottle. Keep in mind, this is only accurate until your baby weighs 14lbs. After that, your baby’s breastmilk need plateaus at about 28-35oz per day. It won’t go up beyond that, so those 6-8oz bottles are really unnecessary.

9. Have a heart to heart discussion with your baby’s caregiver. Let him/her know how important it is to you that your baby isn’t overfed while away from you. Show empathy and explain that you understand how challenging it is to read your baby’s cues and that things are easier for you because you can always soothe your baby with your breast, which is something the caregiver cannot do. Explain how much milk your baby truly needs in a bottle and during the time you are gone. Anything over that is too much for your baby and makes it difficult for you to keep up. Come up with unique ways for him/her to bond with and soothe your baby, rather than just relying on giving more breastmilk in a bottle.

10. This advice came from a nanny, which was written so well I didn’t want to paraphrase it. ‘I nannies a breastfed baby for about a year and communication with the mom was very important. I also stuck to a schedule. If it was getting close to time for another bottle and I expected her home soon, I would text or call her to see if she wanted me to wait if she was on her way. Also, we would talk in the morning and she would let me know if she planned on coming home for lunch so I knew not to make a bottle. When I noticed that her son’s appetite was increasing, I would let her know that he was acting more hungry increased his bottles 1oz at a time. We also worked on adjusting his schedule so instead of 4oz every 2 hours, we found that 5oz every 3 hours kept him happy. That way he only needed 2 bottles while she was gone (10oz) instead of 3-4 bottles (12-16oz). A big help was her freezer milk in a variety of ounces. I was able to defrost what I needed to give her son without wasting any. As a breastfeeding mom myself, I did my best to respect the hard work she put into building a stash of milk for her son. – Catie.