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Combining Breastfeeding with Outside Employment

Although it takes determination, first let me tell you, "You can do this!" Please read my story about how I successfully breastfed my son, Trevor, as a single, working mom. I hope that my experience and tips will help you. Please email me if you have any questions about how we did it and how you can make it work as well.

An awful lot of babies develop some nipple confusion, especially in the early weeks after Mom has returned to work. If Baby is getting bottles in her absence, she or he may begin to prefer the artificial nipples because it is so much easier to extract milk from the bottle than from the breast. If you and your baby are struggling with nipple confusion, read these suggestions for dealing with nipple confusion in the breastfed baby. Also, you may want to familiarize yourself and your caregiver with the method of paced bottle feeding as it is much less disruptive to breastfeeding and better for the baby.

Another common concern for working, breastfeeding mothers is a baby who is reluctant to take the bottle after having been exclusively breastfed for the first weeks or months of her life. Here are some thoughts on beginning bottlefeeding of a previously exclusively breastfed baby.

You may also be interested in these suggestions for increasing your breastmilk production.

For more information about working and breastfeeding, check out these sites:

• Vivian's story -Combining breastfeeding and shift work

• "Managing the Milk Supply from 43,000 Feet," Jane Bledsoe's experience combining breastfeeding and business travel

• The Traveling, Working, Nursing Mom, Kin Chao's story as a working, breastfeeding mom who successfully maintained her milk supply and provided milk to her baby while she was traveling for business.

And again... if you're planning to combine working and breastfeeding - or you're already doing it! - and you have questions or concerns, PLEASE feel free to email me. Good luck and stay committed!!! The rewards are many and last forever.

Recommended resources:

Hirkani's Daughters: Women Who Scale Modern Mountains to Combine Breastfeeding and Working by Jennifer Hicks

Podcast on Hirkani's Daughters: Jennifer Hicks - Hirkani's Daughters (March 2006) Elisabeth McLaury Lewin interviews Jennifer Hicks, who compiled and edited Hirkani's Daughters, a collection of stories about mothers who combine working and breastfeeding. We talk about the similarities and differences of working mothers around the world, whose stories are detailed in the book. Hirkani's Daughters also includes excellent resources: creating breastfeeding-friendly workplaces, advice on what working mothers need to know about working, pumping, and child care considerations; co sleeping with baby and more. (43 min.)

Nursing Mother, Working Mother: The Essential Guide to Breastfeeding Your Baby Before and After You Return to Work, Revised Edition by Gale Pryor, Kathleen Huggins (2007) available on Kindle

Breastfeeding in Combat Boots: A Survival Guide to Successful Breastfeeding While Serving in the Military by Robyn Roche-Paull available on Kindle

Find the latest information on breastfeeding and the law, including laws related to workplace pumping.

"20 Tips For Working and Breastfeeding" from Dr. Sears

AP-WORKS - an email list for working, breastfeeding mothers

Breastfeeding in a cigar factory, 1915