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Breastfeeding Support for Working Moms

I hope these tips help moms keep their supply up and continue breastfeeding when returning to work!
By 

Senior Director, Professional Relations, Lansinoh Laboratories

Senior Director, Professional Relations, Lansinoh Laboratories
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My company has dedicated a lot of support to helping moms breastfeed at work after the birth of their babies. We've given advice on pumping at work, support for working moms and guidance for maintaining the work-life balance.

That's why the latest news story about a professor at American University who breastfed her sick infant during a class lecture jumped out at me. I've been there -- I was a working mom and I found myself pumping in the workplace during the day so I could keep up my milk supply and leave behind my expressed breastmilk for my care provider. Experiencing the juggle compelled me to go into breastfeeding advocacy and education.

This recent story made us want to share some of the blog posts we've created over the years to help working moms breastfeed their babies and keep a normal balance of pumping and breastfeeding when returning to work. Here's a snapshot of some of the topics we've covered that can help working, breastfeeding moms:

  • Breastfeeding moms win with the Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ensures breastfeeding, working moms have the time and a private place, other than a bathroom, to pump or breastfeed at work. A huge win for breastfeeding moms, it also requires health plans to cover breastfeeding support, supplies and counseling.

  • Your return to work: It's never too early to start planning. Separation from your brand-new baby is especially difficult when you're breastfeeding. Not only do you have to adjust to life away from your infant, you also have to get the hang of pumping breastmilk and fitting it into your busy schedule. That's why we asked Pamela Murphy, IBCLC, PhD, CNM to contribute this guest post all about making the return to work smoother for breastfeeding moms.

  • Breastfeeding 101: Breastmilk storage guidelines. We covered general breastmilk storage guidelines, as well as what type of container to use, how to warm your milk, what to know about thawed milk and how to know if your frozen breastmilk should be discarded.

  • Dr. Sylvia Guendelman on juggling work and breastfeeding after maternity leave. We interviewed Dr. Sylvia Guendelman, Professor of Community Health and Human Development at University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Guendelman was the lead researcher on the study "Juggling Work and Breastfeeding: Effects of Maternity Leave and Occupational Characteristics," which examined the relationship between breastfeeding and maternity leave before and after delivery among working mothers in Southern California.

  • What you should know if you exclusively pump breastmilk. Most moms who are away from their babies all day while at work have to pump their breastmilk to keep up their supply and also to leave behind their expressed breastmilk for their baby's care provider. Some of these tips, including how to ease soreness and how to create bonding, can help working moms who aren't always able to be with their baby.

  • Planning to breast pump? Moms give advice for making the transition back to work. We shared mom-to-mom advice on how working moms can maintain their breastmilk supply, determine how much milk should be pumped and stored in a day and figure out how to best fit pumping into their work schedules.
    • We hope these help moms keep their supply up and continue breastfeeding when returning to work!

    These breastfeeding tips and more can be found on OnCloudMom.com.

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