Breastfeeding and the working mum
Breastfeeding is encouraged for the healthy development of the baby and should continue even when the mother goes back to work. To ensure enough supply of breast milk when the mother goes back to work, it is advisable to practice breast milk expression 2 weeks before returning to work. Breast milk can be stored in the fridge for 2 days on the refrigerator shelves. It can be kept for 3 months in the refrigerator freezer.
During the 2 weeks before going back to work, express the breastmilk in the morning at 10am and feed the baby using a bottle at 11am. This is to allow the baby to get use to feeding using bottle so that you won’t have the problem of baby refusing bottle when you are not around.
In the afternoon, express the breastmilk and store in the freezer. Use a clean and sterilized milk bottle for storing and closed the cap tightly. Alternatively, you can use the disposable milk storage bag. By doing this, you should have 14 bottles of breastmilk frozen by the time you start work.
When you go back to work, feed the baby in the morning before you go to work. When you are at work, stored milk is used for the baby. At work, you should continue to express at 10am, 1pm and 4pm. Keep the expressed milk in the cooler box filled with ice. Expressed breastmilk should not be left in the room temperature at the office. Expressed milk is to be used for feeding the next day.
When at home with the baby, breastfeed directly from the breasts. During the weekends and holidays, continue to feed from the breasts and also expressing to stock up the milk. You can use hand or breast pump to express the milk.
Method of expressing
1. Express 7 minutes on each breast.
2. Stimulate further let downs with massage, stroke and shake of both breasts for a few minutes.
3. Massage the breast with the flat of the fingers.
4. Stroke with the finger nails gently towards the nipple.
5. Shake or jiggle the breasts while bending forward.
6. Express for further 7 minutes on each breast.
7. Total duration of expressing is about 30 minutes.
8. Looking at your baby’s picture or listening to a recording of his cry while expressing also help in breast milk let down.
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[…] to work after maternity). We have been slowly exposing him to formula milk bit by bit because the breastmilk supply is getting low. Hoping that by the time the breast milk runs out, he would have not problem […]