Breast Feeding -
Nurse Your Baby AND Keep Your Job
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By Barbara Behrmann, Ph.D.
“Being asked to decide between your passion for work and your passion for your children was like being asked by your doctor whether you preferred him to remove your brain or your heart.” Mary Kay Blakely in American Mom: Motherhood, Politics, and Humble Pie 1994.
In a culture that places so little real value on mothering, let alone
breast feeding, what’s a nursing mother to do? You need – and want – to earn a decent living. You may, in fact, derive a large chunk of your identity from your job. But you don’t want that to be at the expense of your children.
Unfortunately, many employed women lack on-site child care and have short paid maternity leaves, inflexible work schedules, employers with inadequate breastfeeding information, and resentful co-workers. This compromises the health and well-being of many of our nation’s children. And, of course, employers end up spending more money in lost work time when parents take time off to care for a sick child.
But you and your baby can’t wait until U.S. society becomes more enlightened. Until then, there is still a lot you can do to keep your baby healthy – and keep your job.
● Talk to your employer ahead of time.
This doesn’t mean you ask for permission. Simply explain that you will be breastfeeding and you want to know what options are available. Can you work part-time? Can you take some of the work home? Can you bring your baby to work? Can you arrange to have someone bring you your baby when he or she needs to nurse? Where can you express your milk? Several states, in fact, have passed laws guaranteeing a woman’s right to pump her milk while at work. Your employer may not give you the answers you desire, but it’s harder for them to ignore your needs if you aren’t meek about asserting them.
● Give them information to show how breastfeeding benefits their bottom line.
If your employer doesn’t have a corporate lactation policy, a pumping room set up for mothers, or even a clean, private place for you to go, a good source of information can be found at www.medela.com/NewFiles/corplactprgm.html.
● Learn how to express your milk.
Expressing milk may help you feel more connected to your baby. As one New York City mother puts it, “I always saw expressing milk at work in a very positive light. I know women who hated it, like it was one more overwhelming obligation that hung over their heads, but I never felt that way. It helped me feel that I was present with my children even when I was physically absent. It helped me achieve a sort of balance.”
Expressing milk is key, but not all pumps are created equal. Many of the semi-automatic and double breast pumps sold at chain stores provide too little stimulation to release the milk and may cause discomfort or pain. Instead, purchase or rent a high quality, electric pump (cheaper, in the long run, than formula). See if your employer will cover the cost. (Remind them that companies save money on breastfed babies.)
For more information on breast pumps, an excellent site is: www.artofbreastfeeding.com. Also visit www.medela.com or www.ameda.com. Both sites also offer lists of rental locations.
● Make sure your care-giver is supportive of breastfeeding.
He or she should be willing to use your expressed breast milk, rather than formula, and be comfortable with you nursing your baby just before leaving him and immediately upon picking him up. Make sure they don’t give your baby a bottle shortly before your pick-up time, so you can nurse right away.
One mother explains her arrangements: “Everyone knew I went to the daycare around lunchtime to nurse my son. It didn't matter what was happening at work - when the pager went off, I left, period. The daycare and I worked out a pretty good system. I pumped and left frozen milk at the daycare for the morning and then I fed him at lunch. The day care would page me with a code for feeding, and page me with a phone number for all other emergencies.”
● If you don’t smoke or abuse drugs or alcohol, consider sleeping with or near your baby.
Co-sleeping facilitates nursing at night, which in turn will help you to keep up your milk production. This is especially important if you and your baby are apart for long stretches of time during the day. But whatever your sleeping arrangements, try to stay adequately rested. Being exhausted can negatively affect your milk production.
“Now that I am breastfeeding and pumping,” explains a mother in Syracuse, NY, if I have a bad night’s sleep, my milk production is half what it is when I have a good night’s sleep. I can’t believe how closely related it is. I can say, ‘Look, I’m not getting much milk. I have to get a really good night’s sleep tonight and I have to eat really well today.’ My husband is very supportive of that – I can sleep to noon if I want to.
● Delay supplementation, if possible.
If you are considering supplementing with formula, remember that this will reduce the overall amount of milk you produce. To avoid too much of a reduction in supply, you may want to pump more frequently or nurse more often when you and your baby are together. Again, nursing during the night may be especially helpful.
In the end, even though you may not choose to continue to breastfeed, you definitely deserve the right to.
Barbara Behrmann, Ph.D. is the author of The Breastfeeding Café: Mothers Share the Joys, Secrets & Challenges of Nursing, University of Michigan Press, 2005. She is a freelance writer, a frequent speaker in the U.S. and Canada, and has appeared on a variety of television and radio broadcasts. Barbara maintains a growing website at http://www.breastfeedingcafe.com, offering information, resources, articles and products for parents and health care providers alike. The mother of two formerly breastfed children, she lives in upstate New York.
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