How can I maintain my milk supply after going back to work?

If you've been exclusively breastfeeding your baby at home, and now it's time to go back to work or school and be separated from your baby, it's still possible to continue nursing by pumping while at work or while you're at school and gone. There's a couple of different things that you should think about ahead of time, and the first is the resources that will be available to you. For example, if you're going back to work, talk with your employer about the place that you can go pump at, and what type of schedule is available to you for you to pump. Is there coverage so that you can leave and make sure that this happens? The best thing is to try to match your baby's eating schedule as closely as possible. So if they're eating every 3 to 4 hours, if you can pump every 3 to 4 hours, then that's ideal for your benefit and for your baby's.

Another thing to consider is the type of pump that you're going to use. And a 3rd thing to think about is proper handling and storage of the breast milk that you pump. Now obviously, being a nurse, I went back to work after having babies, and I know that it can be pretty intimidating to go back to work and to try to maintain your milk supply, but it is possible to do. From experience, one of the things that I think is most challenging for a pumping mother is the fact that you have so much to accomplish in such a short amount of time. You may only have 15 minutes at work to pump, and go to the bathroom, and eat. And so how do you do all that in just 15 minutes? And the more stressed out you are about it happening, the less likely your milk is to let down, because you just need to relax. But that's easier said than done.

And so it may sound weird, but one of the things that is really helpful is to get a video of your baby crying, or cooing, whatever you'd like, and watch and listen to that while pumping, and that will encourage let-down. You can also close your eyes and imagine holding your baby close to you. You need to make sure that you let a couple of let-downs at least happen, because you need to effectively empty the breast in order to keep your supply up, because once the breasts are emptied, that's when they're stimulated to make more milk. And so if they're only partially emptied, you may struggle with supply. Also, you want to have a few let-downs so that you access the hind-milk, which is really high in fat and great for your baby.

Now, another thing to consider is that you need to make sure that you're eating and drinking enough to maintain your supply. If you're exclusively nursing and pumping, you need 400-500 extra calories a day. And it's easy to neglect yourself when you're at work, and to not eat or drink enough, and so be cognizant of this, and make sure that you're eating enough healthy snacks throughout the day to keep up your milk supply. If you have more questions for me in the future, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IntermountainMoms, and recommend us to your friends and family too.

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