Expert: Sally Wendkos Olds - 7/28/2008

Question
I am mother of 3 girls, Cierra 12 who I breastfed for 22 mos., Bethamy 2 who I breastfed for 14 months and Lili 3 mos. who I am currently breastfeeding...With my two older daughters I did not work full time so I breastfed full time..NO BOTTLES NO FORMULA EVER...This time around I am working full time and there is no where for me to pump, the times I have pumped it is in a stall in a public bathroom, people coming in and out and wondering what the noise is, very distracting, so I have began to supplement because milk supply is slowing down because I am not pumping regularly, but how do i supplement and continue to have enough milk to nurse her when i am with her?

Answer
Dear Maggie,

First, congratulations for giving your daughters the best start in life by breastfeeding all of them! (I nursed my three daughters too.) I know that it is harder to do this while you are working full-time -- that's why I devote an entire chapter of my book (see below) to issues faced by working mothers.

The best way to keep up your milk supply is to keep emptying your breasts -- by nursing as often as you can while you are home and by pumping as often as you can when you're away. Not easy, I know! I am attaching an excerpt from my book suggesting a schedule that works for some working nursing mothers. I hope the suggestions help you.

Good luck!

Sally
--------------------------------
Sally Wendkos Olds
Author, THE COMPLETE BOOK OF BREASTFEEDING: Eiger & Olds, 3rd edition 1999, published by Workman Publishing & Bantam Books, and available in most public libraries, bookstores & La Leche League chapters. Now in revision for a fourth edition, with Laura M. Marks, M.D.
---------------------
Your Nursing Schedule
While there are many different ways to arrange your breastfeeding schedule, a fairly typical one for a full-time mother of a small baby with fairly regular habits may go something like this:
1. Wake up in the morning one hour before you need to begin to get ready for work. Take your baby back to bed with you for a quiet, leisurely feeding.
2. Nurse your baby again just before you leave him at the caregiver’s home or at the day care center. This one is optional, depending on how much time has elapsed since the first morning feeding, and on you and your baby. If you do have time, it’s a nice way to say “Good-bye, I’ll see you soon.”
3. If you’re leaving your own milk for your baby’s feedings, express or pump two to three times during the workday (on morning and/or afternoon coffee breaks and/or at lunchtime).
4. If feasible, nurse your baby at noon, either by going to her or having her brought to you.
5. Nurse your baby right after work, at the child-care site if you have a long ride home or, preferably, at home. Ask the caregiver not to feed your baby for a couple of hours before you’re expected.)
6. Nurse just before you go to sleep.
7. Nurse one or more times during the night. (This is optional, depending on your baby’s schedule. Many women find that getting up once during the night is not exhausting, especially if they and the baby go right back to sleep afterward, which is easier if they are sleeping in the same room.)
  No one is typical, and every woman has to learn what works for her. One flight attendant, for example, went back to work after three months, making three trips a week. She chose night flights so that she would miss only one or two feedings, used a breast pump every three or four hours, put her breast milk in bottles that she packed in ice till she got home, and then froze the milk for use during her next flight.
  Another mother nursed full-time for her baby’s first six weeks, then substituted formula for two daytime feedings a day for the next two weeks, and went back to work after two months. She continued to nurse only three times a day—morning, evening, and bedtime.