If you intend to breastfeed your baby exclusively and you have to get back to work, yes, you can pump breast milk and store. There are three questions women who are trying to go back to work and still breastfeed usually ask about pumping at work.
And they are
1. How often should I pump at work to keep up my supply?
2. How much milk will I need every day?
3. How do I store breast milk until it’s needed?
Other moms who aren’t exclusively breastfeeding might find this article useful but this article dwells on working full-time moms who are exclusively breastfeeding.
Here are answers to these 3 questions;
1. How often should I pump at work to keep up my supply?
You might have to pump every 2 or 3 hours when you’re at work to keep with the schedule. If for example, you work from 9-5 that’s like 8 hours a day during that 8 hour period you have to express milk like 3 times. That way you’d be able to keep up your supply and you won’t be engorged. If you breastfeed your baby before you leave for work and immediately when you get home you might feel the need not to pump, but what will your baby eat when you are away? That’s where the expressed milk comes in! They’d take the expressed milk until you come home and give them their dinner.
When your baby starts eating solids 6 months, you may reduce the number of times you pump in a day. You can use about 15 minutes to pump, just make sure you empty your breast each time you pump.
2. How much milk will I need every day?
From 6 weeks to 6 months, exclusively breastfeed babies consume approximately one ounce (30ml) per hour when their mother is away from them. So if you’re going to be away at work or somewhere, make sure you leave the person taking care of your baby enough breast milk for them. If you’ll be away for 8 hours you have to provide (30ml * 10) that’s 300ml or 10 ounces of breast milk, your baby might eat more though, you know your baby. You might have to tell your baby’s caregivers the signs that he/she is hungry so they don’t offer feed each time he’s crying or fussing.
When you get back home your baby will take the rest of his feed from breast
3. How do I store breast milk until it’s needed?
After pumping breast milk, store inside the fridge in your office (if you have a water dispenser at work, use the small fridge), when you get home, put it in your fridge and get it packaged in small bottles so you can give it to your child’s caregiver the next day. If the breastmilk is already frozen, remove it from the freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight, by morning it should have de-froze but if it hasn’t, place it in hot water. But never heat your child’s breast milk in the microwave or on the stove. Tuesday milk should be expressed on Monday and frozen, Wednesday milk should be expressed and Tuesday, just follow this routine and you’ll be fine.
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