Expert: ruth kraft - 12/4/2008

Question
Hi Ruth.  I have a 7 month-old baby.  I have been nursing him exclusively since birth.  He has never had a formula milk and a bottle before.  I decided to go back to work part-time as a dentist (every other Saturday, 9am to 2pm).  I have a half-an-hour commute drive to the clinic (one-way), so a total of an hour on the road every other Sat.  I have been breastfeeding my baby about every 4-5 hours.  He is starting a little bit of cereal with milk every day (about 1-2 oz at a time).  He is not very good at eating solid food yet.  My husband is going to take care of the baby while I am away at work.  Do you have any recommendation as to how to coordinate breastfeeding and work in my situation?  I do have an electrical breast pump.  I am pretty good at expressing milk manually too (it takes me about 15 minutes to do both sides).  Should I nurse my baby right before I leave for work then pump the other side for my husband to feed later, or should I store up some milk ahead of time?  If yes, how would I do that?  Please advice.  Thank you very much.

Answer
Hello! congrats on going 7 months :) You make me proud :) What I would suggest is  since you know what your hours are, I would start a few days before you go to work, to pump in the times that you think you will be pumping at work. So if you will be gone from 820-230, then maybe try to pump around noon?  this will help you save up some milk for while you are gone to give the baby if he needs it.

For your day, I would suggest to nurse before you go to work, ( if the baby wants to then, if not, then pump.. or if he only nurses a little pump afterwards to express more ) then 3-4 hours later, pump if your breasts are really full. If not, then try to make it home and nurse him well then. if hes not interested because he just had a bottle of expressed milk,  then pump and save that for the following week.

freshly expressed milk is good for 8 hours room temp so even if you pump while at work, you'll be fine for getting it home to refrigerate.

if it is too hard to pump while you are at work since you don't have a completely long 10 hour day, your breasts very well may adjust to just waiting until you get home to nurse.  But if you have the ability to pump a bottle during, then I would go ahead and do that, so that you have it at least saved up. you can always freeze it for when you go out with hubby on  a date :)


Ruth Kraft
www.Honoringwomen.com