Balancing Breastfeeding/Expressing with Work

Just a thought on breastfeeding. Isn't it nice if it is as blissful as painted in the picture below: A new mother (somehow still looking so beautiful and glowing), smiling and cradling her newborn. The newborn doesn't fight her nipple. She has latched on perfectly, sucking peacefully..No pain, no discomfort., no problems..Sigh, well, what a load of ...................gross, erroneous misrepresentation of reality! Anyone who has ever breastfed will tell you it's not like that at all for the first 1 and a half weeks. Agree?? In fact, I never knew tears of pain until I breastfed...... The reality is:

1) Breastfeeding is painful for 1-2weeks. You may not have sore or cracked nipples, infection, thrush, mastitis..etc.. It just hurts.
2) The newborn may experience nipple confusion due to their stay in private hospitals where nurses feed them with bottles. So when blissful mama tries to breastfeed, the baby screeeeeeeams or fights your nipple.
3) May be stressful as prior to your milk coming in, your own mother or mother in law would be asking "Got milk? Got milk? No milk! Quickly! Go buy milk powder!" when all you want is to give your baby the best nature and God has given you.

But hang in there... persevere and persist! After that, breastfeeding will be a breeze!

Anyway, unless you're a full-time, stay-at-home mum, it's hard to just breastfeed directly.. so most of us have to balance work with expressing and storing our milk for our young ones. I think this is one of the most challenging part of mothering--ensuring your baby gets breastmilk while fulfilling work obligations.

So, how to go about it? Be forewarned -- unlike the picture above, I'm telling you the FACTS: it's NOT easy, it's actually VERY troublesome, it takes GREAT effort, we need a LOT of support and understanding from people around us ...BUT! The rewards are great, and your young one deserves the best after all...that alone is a good enough reason.

How I did it:
When I was still teaching (after giving birth to my first girl), I expressed my milk every 2 hours, starting from 6am. First expression in the morning, I could fill up 8 ounces. After that, each time, I could express 4 ounces. So, at work from 8am - 6pm, I could express roughly 24 ounces. I was lucky because I could store my milk in the school's fridge and thank goodness, my colleagues then helped me out with classes. They had to replace me everytime I disappeared to pump milk. Then, at home, I continued breastfeeding.

For my 2nd girl, I had even more milk!! However, it's more challenging to express diligently as there's an older child to care for, chores, work, hubby... By her first month, I was expressing 13 ounces early in the morning, then an average of 6 ounces every 2 hours. Eventually, I had to cut the frequency down to every 4 hours, averaging 9-10 ounces each time. And this is besides breastfeeding directly as well. Now that she's 8 months old and eating semi solids, I express once or twice a day. Of course by now, since I cut down so much , my supply has decreased a lot. Check out the difference:

Then, (daughter 4 months old) after 1 day of expressing:Now, (daughter 8 months old) after 1 day:One. Small. Lonely. Bottle.

Here's my trusty breast pump: AVENT manual hand pump

Now, calling all breastfeeding, expressing-while-working and exclusively pumping mums, please share with us how you handled this balancing act. How do you balance doing all that while working in the office or at home (Housework is still WORK!), or when taking care of your other kids+hubby.. Please share to inspire and encourage new mums or mums-to-be ya?

Carpe Diem, ladies!
Becky










The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only. The content is not designed to be a substitute for professional medical consultation.