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- Choose the best pump for your situation. If you are working full time and will be expressing milk for most or all of your
baby’s feedings while you are away from home, a hospital-quality double electric pump is probably your best choice.
- Determine whether renting or buying a pump is best for you. If you can share a pump with another mom in your workplace
(you would each have your own accessories for the pump) or only plan to pump for a few months, renting may be most
economical. If you plan to pump for longer than a few months, at home as well as at the office or for future children, you may
wish to purchase a pump.
- Get into a schedule. Many women find that they express more milk when they are able to pump at the same times each
day – they train their bodies into a let-down at those times. Choose the times of day you have the most milk and that fit into
your working schedule – you don’t need to pump at even intervals. For example, you may find that pumping twice between 8
a.m. and noon, then once between noon and 5 p.m., yields the most milk for you.
- If your milk supply begins to drop a little, try adding another pumping session to your daily schedule for a while. You may
find that if you do this for just a few days, you can go back to your regular schedule and continue pumping the same amount
of milk you did with the one extra pumping a day. For women in many types of jobs, it can be hard to find the time to pump
during the day, so knowing that the extra pumping is temporary may make it easier to add one.
- Keep your pump at work during the week, if there’s a safe place for it and you don’t need it at home. If you’re commuting
on public transportation, you probably don’t want to lug your pump with you each day. Instead, carry your collection bottles in
an insulated lunchbox with plastic ice packs – you can take your lunch to work in it and bring your milk home in it. You can
also safely store your milk in it during the day so you don’t have to worry about forgetting your milk in the lunchroom
refrigerator.
- Make sure there’s always a little extra milk in your freezer and in the freezer of your baby’s caregiver. The anxiety of
worrying about producing just enough milk for tomorrow’s feedings can be enough to inhibit your let-down. Having the back-up
insurance of some banked milk can go a long way toward easing the worry. It can also make it a lot easier to accept the
occasional day when your work schedule forces you skip a pumping session or two.
- Keep an extra cardigan sweater or jacket at work. The reason for this is two-fold. First, if you go too long between
pumpings and leak a little, you can use it to cover up any embarrassing milk spots on your blouse. Second, if you’re wearing
something that you need to remove completely to pump, you can use the sweater to keep warm while you’re pumping.
- Make pumping a relaxing break that you look forward to. It can be tempting to read incoming e-mail or make a mental
to-do list while you are pumping – don’t! The hormones you release while pumping will make you feel refreshed and more
productive when you return to work, so don’t worry about getting work done during your pumping time. If you are in your
office, turn off your computer monitor, send your phone to voicemail and don’t look at the papers on your desk. Look at a
photo of your baby, or even turn off your light if you can. If you’re in another room, close your eyes and imagine what your
baby felt like in your arms this morning, take some deep breaths and relax.
About the Author: Rachel Sobel is an
iParenting associate editor, a La Leche League peer counselor specializing in
helping working moms breastfeed and the mother of two breastfed children.
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