How to Maintain Your Breastmilk Supply While at Work
Returning to work while trying to maintain your milk supply might be a scary thought. But with the right prep and mindset you can absolutely maintain your milk supply to feed your little one. So let’s jump right into the process on how to prepare for this occasion!
Back to Work After Giving Birth
The first step to prepare for your return to work would be to choose the right breast pump. The most suitable breast pump for returning to work with the goal of maintaining your milk supply would be a hospital-grade pump (which can be rented) or a personal-use pump. There are many of them out there, so do your research on the different kinds, and you can even ask your other working mom friends which ones have worked best for them.
Make sure you try the breast pump in advance so that you can test if it is comfortable, that it works well for you, and so that you can become familiar with using it. You will also want to make sure that you have the correct flange sizes in order to make pumping the most comfortable and efficient process as possible. Having the correct flange size can really make a difference on how much milk you pump! There are many different flange size rulers you can obtain online, or you can contact your local lactation consultant to help you measure for the correct flange sizes.
Once you have your breast pump and have tested that it is comfortable and effective, you will want to contact your employer to ensure that they will have a clean, private space for you to pump. To make the process of pumping even easier at work, you can choose to wear something that will help you to access your breasts in a simple and easy way, such as a shirt with hidden breastfeeding access or a dress with hidden access.
>>> CHECK OUT THIS BLOG: Your rights when pumping at work
>>> CHECK OUT THIS BLOG: Your rights when pumping at work
Pumping Breastmilk
When you are at work, plan to pump the same amount of times you would typically feed your baby while at home, and attempt to maintain a routine with your pumping sessions at work. If you skip pumping sessions or go too long in between sessions, it could decrease your milk supply. If you happen to be short for time at work, then short and frequent pumping sessions are better than one long pumping session.
This mom is wearing a pleated peplum nursing top with access for pumping.
If you start to see your milk supply drop, remember that the more milk you remove, the more your body will make. So on your days off try to breastfeed exclusively and add in some pumping sessions if possible.
Mom wearing a fit and flare dress with hidden breastfeeding access to easily pump at work.
Breastmilk Storage
So you have your pump, you have pumped your milk while at work, now what? Well, it’s time to safely store that milk! Here are some storage guidelines and tips for you to follow based on the CDC recommendations:
- Freshly pumped breastmilk is good at room temperature for 4 hours
- Breastmilk stored in the fridge is good up to 4 days
- Breastmilk stored in the freezer is best up to 6 months, but up to 12 months is acceptable.
- Once breastmilk is thawed, it is only good for 24 hours and is not to be re-frozen
You can bring freezer packs for your drive home from work to help chill your breastmilk in order to make it last longer than 4 hours.
It may be beneficial for you to store your breastmilk in small quantities at first until you have a better idea of how much volume your baby will take at one feeding time (milk leftover in the bottle will have to be discarded if not used within 2 hours of starting the feed). So you could aim to store 1-2oz of milk at a time until you have a better idea of how much your baby will take at feeding time.
Overall, returning to work may be a scary and emotional experience, but you can absolutely do it! With the right preparation and right mindset, it is totally possible to maintain your milk supply while at work!
This is a guest blog post written by Amanda Hewitt, RN and IBCLC . You can follow her on Instagram for more great tips on breastfeeding!
This is a guest blog post written by Amanda Hewitt, RN and IBCLC . You can follow her on Instagram for more great tips on breastfeeding!
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