Let’s Talk About Milk Expression
March 19, 2007 by Amy Spangler | 2 questions or comments
We Can Do It!
“I have to say that one of my greatest challenges in continuing to breastfeed now that the latching/sore nipples is no longer an issue, is working and pumping. I have met a number of mothers in my son’s daycare who stopped breastfeeding because they felt they could not pump enough or did not have time.
I think my son and one other baby are the only infants being breastfed. It is amazing the feeding practices that go on during the 0-12 month phase and the breastfeeding/infant feeding knowledge of early child care teachers. I sometimes feel a lot of pressure to give my son more than a 6 ounce bottle of breastmilk, especially when his teacher says that he gulps down the milk quickly.
I am doing my best to educate the school without being too pushy, but this seems to be an area where training is needed. Not only for the teachers but the parents, since at this age the teachers will feed the babies what, when, and how much the parents request whether it is good practice or not.
I have learned so much about milk expression in the last 2 months it’s incredible.”
If I only knew then what I know now!
Sound familiar?
If so, this is your chance to share what you “know now” with other moms who are wondering how to combine breastfeeding, working, and pumping.
To those moms who have “been there, done that,” please tell us what did and didn’t work.
This issue is so dear to my heart. I work in a very supportive environment, but my best friend had to fight for her right to pump at work.
My biggest challenge isn’t work-related, but baby related. She’s so finicky about taking bottles, and many days she’ll eat only an ounce or two from 9 a.m. to 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. We nurse frequently in the evenings, and we cosleep and nurse a lot at night, so she’s making up for most of the milk she misses on my four days a week at work. It’s so frustrating to have to be away and know she’s not eating when I’m not there. She seems to be perfectly content with the arrangement- and since I sleep with her I’m well-enough rested.
The cosleeping is really the most wonderful thing for us- in addition to making it so easy to nurse at night, the physical closeness is the most calming thing for me. If I were away during the day and then didn’t feel close to her at night I’d really be missing her.
On March 27, 2007 the Food and Drug Administrations’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) launched a new website that provides consumers with information on breast pumps. The FDA’s breast pump website was developed in cooperation with the US Breastfeeding Committee. It contains general information on choosing, using, and cleaning breast pumps, as well as information on human milk storage.
Additional features include links to Government and non-Government organizations such as MedWatch (a safety information and adverse event reporting system), the Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health, the USDA’s breastfeeding and infant nutrition resource page, a list of State WIC contacts, a list of all FDA cleared breast pumps, breastfeeding support organizations and more.