The Working Mum and Breastfeeding

I love my job. It's crazy, the hours are long, the pay could be better, and it is way too stressful and demanding. For a bit of a relaxing change of pace, I go to work :-)

Fortunately, I work for a very understanding company who genuinely want me to continue working for them and aren't just grudgingly obeying federal regulation which prevents them from firing me just because I want flexible working arrangements.

When The Little Man was 6 months old, I went back to work 2 days a week, Hubby worked 3 days a week, and between us we managed without Daycare. At 11 months, The Little Man Started Daycare once a week (That was all we could get because our daycare had a waiting list a mile long). Hubby went back to full time and I dropped to working the one day that The Little Man was in daycare. These days, I've gone back to work 2 days a week (except when my mother flies into town to visit [her grandson]). 

During those visits, I  get to go to work 5 days a week and The Little Man spends 2 days in daycare, with the rest covered by his grandmother. This gradual shift back to work has resulted in two things: 

1.)   My Mum's visiting dates are now the subject of business strategy meetings; and

2.)   I've needed to work out my own strategies around breastfeeding

Breastfeeding rooms

Now, in case you didn't know, I work as an Engineering Consultant. That is a job that has "MEN" written all over it. At my workplace, the office ratio of women to men is about 1 in 10; if you take the Admin and HR staff out of that equation, it becomes 1 in 50.

Needless to say, there isn't a purpose built lactation break room at my workplace. Fortunately, my line manager is the only other female engineer in the office (and herself a mother of 4 (Super Impressed!!)). Together, we were able to find a way that I could have a lactation break when I needed to, and a private place I could express and store milk to bring home for The Little Man. 

In Australia, women are protected by federal and state anti-discrimination legislation in the workplace and employers are legally obliged to ‘reasonably accommodate’ breastfeeding mothers. However, the level of breastfeeding support required by workplaces is open to interpretation.

The Australian  Breastfeeding Association 

I'd never express in a woman's bathroom the same way I wouldn't eat a sandwich there no matter how clean it is, so I was pretty certain that I was going to get a nice private comfortable place where I could safely unbutton my shirt and empty my mind from work stress in order to be able to get any milk.

I'd like to say I got a cushioned-aromatherapy-zen-meditation room with fountain, we all envision, but this was not to be. We did, however, find a quiet windowless office who's only other function is housing the fireproof safe that IT uses to keep file backups and stuff (I should point out that I have absolutely no access to this safe besides sitting next to it). I brought in a comfortable chair and, on particularly stressful days, my iPod to help me relax.

The milk is stored in a non nondescript container (Philips Avent Storage Container) in our kitchen fridge, labelled only with my name (not the contents). Only 7 people share the fridge and we have never had a problem with food stealing.

At the end of the day I pack up the container in my lunch bag with the pump and go home to put in the fridge or freezer, all ready to send with The Little Man next time he's off to Daycare.

Letting Everyone Know or Keep it Secret?

I decided to be subtle (but not secretive) about taking lactation breaks in the afternoons. I have no trouble talking to my colleagues (male or female) about breastfeeding, but I figured that if I timed my breaks during the after lunch stupor, when everyone is trying to get back into the swing of working, no one would come looking for me in the 15 mins I'd be away from my desk.

The people around me see me ducking into the room and coming out (balancing milk container atop the opaque lunch bag which holds my pump). No one but my Manager has been explicitly told that I'm expressing every afternoon, but they've either already figured it out or haven't really noticed.

I do have to store the milk in the little kitchen fridge and take my pump into the ladies to get it washed (because the safe room doesn't have a sink). But, fortunately for me, all those locations are right next to each other.

Things to Know

Like anything child related, Breastfeeding while working requires some planning.

First, you should probably talk to your manager about any arrangements that you need before starting back at work. This gives them some time to work out if there is a suitable room or if they have to make something work for you (recommended: cushioned-aromatherapy-zen-meditation room with fountain)

Second, expressing either by hand or by pump takes almost as much work figuring out as breastfeeding does (i.e. don't fall for that "it all comes naturally" stuff... it takes work). And don't wait till your first day back at work to get used to expressing. The pump you have may not work for you. Or you may prefer a manual to an electric or vice versa. All these things need to get worked out before starting work.

Third, don't worry too much about it. It's 2013, I work with military trained engineering types and if they can be easy going about having a breastfeeding Mum at work I think anyone can. Half are fathers themselves and most of the other half are probably going to be when they grow up (I swear that grads are getting younger and younger every year).

I must confess, I have missed expressing the whole workday quite a number of times. This has been for a number of reasons like forgetting to bring my pump to work, or I just got caught up in doing stuff and suddenly realized that it was 6 pm. Milk doesn't suddenly dry up and The Little Man is usually grateful to have something to left to nurse when I get home.

I've been back at work both part time and full time for nearly a year now and we're still at 2-3 feeds a day: once in the morning (about an hour before breakfast), and once at night (about half an hour before bedtime). When I'm home with The Little Man, we also have a feed before naptime at 11.30 am.

When I'm at work, I'll express once anytime between 1.30 and 3.30 pm depending on what I'm doing. And at Daycare, the Carers give The Little Man his bottle of expressed milk at around 3 pm. This is around the time he seems to want to know if we're coming back for him. I think that's what keeping me motivated to continue expressing at work. Just knowing that a little reminder of Mummy in the afternoon keeps him content till one of us picks him up at around 5.

The Little Man is 17 months old now and I didn't expect to be Breastfeeding him for this long. But now that we're here we might as well go for the WHO recommendation of 2 years then reevaluate (unless he decides to stop before that).