Going Back to Work

Continuing to breastfeed fully or partially once you have gone back to work is perfectly possible if you have the motivation, although it is obviously easier to breastfeed in some jobs rather than others. Babies who settle quickly into a feeding pattern can make life easier, but a great deal depends simply on how much you want to do it. Determined mothers will usually plan carefully and make it work for them. Before you go back to work full-time you need to have established a supply of milk, and this can take about six weeks. Begin expressing milk and freezing it before you go back, both to build up a store so that you do not begin on day one without any back-up, and also to learn the best method of expressing. If you get on well with expressing by hand, this has the advantage of doing away with the need to carry, set up and sterilise a pump. Otherwise find the best hand- or battery-operated pump to suit you.

It is usually easiest to express at the time when you would normally be feeding the baby. Finding the right place with privacy and enough comfort to express depends on your office – the health centre or medical room is often a good solution in a big organisation, otherwise find a free room. Usually the lavatory is not a good place though it may sometimes be the only answer.

A certain amount depends on having a boss who does not make you feel bad about disappearing for twenty to thirty minutes occasionally. Take ready-sterilised screw-top bottles to work and if possible store them in a fridge afterwards. If not, then use a freezer bag. If you work near home it may be possible to nip home at lunchtime or have the baby brought in for one feed. Make sure you wear breast pads or easy-access clothes that are loose and dark or patterned so they will not show if you do leak.

To keep up a supply you need to express as often as you would be giving a full feed – usually twice during the working day. Let your baby suck as long as he wants at other times – most babies do tend to take longer over the feeds you give to make up sucking time they may have missed. This will also keep up your milk supply.

Some babies may try to reverse day and night, to sleep longer in the day and demand feeds at night when they can be breast- not bottle-fed. This is not to be encouraged as it is exhausting for a working mother. It is hard to control the waking and sleeping patterns of very young babies, but as they get older the person looking after your baby can try to keep him awake and amused during the day, and a nipple-shaped comforter can help a baby who seems to miss sucking at the breast. After a weekend you may find you have more milk because you have been feeding the baby yourself and by Friday your milk supply may be down again.

Don’t worry too much about trying to accustom your baby to taking a bottle before you go back to work because breastfed babies often refuse a bottle from their own mothers but will accept one when they are hungry from someone else. A naturally-shaped teat with quite a small hole so they still have to suck hard will stop them preferring bottles to breast if you have to go back to work when they are very young. However, it is a good idea to start offering a bottle containing expressed milk or water occasionally right from the start so that the baby can learn both bottle- and breastfeeding techniques.

Partial Breastfeeding

‘I did find that being able to come home and breastfeed my baby was tremendously comforting. It seemed an instant way of re-establishing the closeness and I think it helped me not to feel guilty or jealous about leaving her.’

A mixture of breast- and bottle-feeding can be a pleasant way to continue enjoying closeness with your baby after you have gone back to work. Dropping one feed needs to be done gradually and you need to continue to allow the baby to suck for longer at other times, for example, at the morning and evening feeds, to maintain a sufficient supply. You will probably not be able to maintain part-time feeding for very long, unless your baby has had time to establish a pattern of full-time feeding, usually for at least the first ten to twelve weeks.