CindySwartz.com

Someone said to me on a radio talk show that I was a guest on, “Working women don’t breastfeed.” Actually, a higher percentage of working mothers than stay-at-home mothers breastfeed. But a higher percentage also quit after six months because they don’t want to pump. You can work and continue to breastfeed. Like everything else in your new life, you’ll need to do a little planning to accommodate your date with your breast pump or wait until your body is better prepared to produce milk on your schedule before you’re able to completely stop pumping.

“I really don’t want to pump at work,” Sarina said a month before her maternity leave was up. Yes, pumping is a pain in the neck. But it’s not that big a pain in the neck. If your baby is very young and eating every two hours, when you return to work, your body is programmed to produce milk that often. That means pumping two to ten ounces four times a day.

If this seems overwhelming or impossible, you’ll need to slowly train your body to make less milk. Maybe you can fit in one pump break during lunch. As the work week went along, I found myself pumping less and less often. Over the weekend, my daughter Olivia was breastfeeding every two hours again, and there was always milk for her. Of course, Monday and Tuesday, there was a little too much milk.

You probably won’t be able to train your body for specific pumping times until your baby is at least four months.
You can eventually train your body not to make milk at the times your baby used to be feeding. You simply start dropping one of your pumping sessions every few days (do it slowly to avoid getting engorged). This is to help you avoid having to completely wean your baby because, for whatever reason, you aren’t pumping. Some women elect to continue to breast-feed in the morning, in the evening, and during the night. Your body is able to do this, though there may be a lag time between your desires and your body’s ability to conform to them. Even if you think you can only get in one pump during your work hours, this too is better than no pumping at all. Lactation consultants used to say it took three to four days for your body to catch up with an increased or a decreased demand for milk. But new research seems to suggest your body is smarter than that and figures out, feed by feed, how much milk your baby is demanding. How much milk you make and how frequently also depends on your milk storage capacity, meaning roughly the size of your breasts. What works for your small-breasted friend might not work for big-breasted you and vice versa (though some small chests can hold a lot and big ones have a small capacity). You’ll have to figure out based on your body, how often you need to pump, but don’t be surprised if you make different amounts every time you pump. Also, if you’ve dropped a feeding and need it back, it’ll only take a few days before that’s part of your body’s schedule again. Ultimately, breastfeeding should make your working life easier, not harder.

I pumped for about the first year, but after the first few months, I never found the time to pump more than once a day. During the transition, I did find times when I was engorged, and it wasn’t pleasant. But my body eventually stopped making the brunch and late lunch meals and just made the lunch buffet of eight ounces or so.