This is a detailed outline of what works for me to pump breast milk at work. I'm a fairly experienced pumping WOHM; I pumped for Lily from 10 weeks until a week before her 1st birthday when I pump weaned, and I intend to pump at work for Hannah until at least her first birthday. I am fortunate to have a solid milk supply and therefore I'm generally able to nurse at home and only pump at work.
I have linked to some products via Amazon Associate links; in every case that I do this, the product is something that I purchased for myself (with the exception of the Ameda pump paid for by my insurance company). These products have been used by me and I like them, or I wouldn't be recommending them! If you decide to buy something through these affiliate links, that's cool and I thank you - if not, that's cool too. My primary goal is to share what has worked for me, not to make money.
1. Plan where and when you will be pumping in the workplace. I recommend starting this process before your baby is even born, when you are discussing maternity leave plans. Many states have laws protecting the right of employees to pump or breastfeed in the workplace. Additionally, federal law established in 2010 by the Affordable Care Act's amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) obligates many employers to provide a private, non-bathroom location and reasonable break time for mothers to express breast milk for the first year of a baby's life.
However, the FLSA amendments from the Affordable Care Act do not apply to every employee in the US, despite what many breastfeeding advocates like to claim on the Internet! I am a salaried professional employee who is exempt from both the minimum wage and the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and therefore the amendments to the FLSA that provide for reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom location to pump do not apply to me. However, my employer is subject to Connecticut law on the matter regardless of my FLSA-exempt status, and Connecticut requires employers to make reasonable efforts to provide a private, non-bathroom location to pump and allows employees to use meal and break time to express milk or breastfeed. (Note that this did not stop my organization from having me pump in a bathroom for 8 months with Lily, but to their credit when HR recognized that they weren't following state law they quickly established a suitable lactation room.)
I could write an entire post about negotiating use of a private space and having time to pump in the workplace, and I may do just that at a later date!
2. You're probably going to need a pump. The only exceptions would be if you are able to go to daycare to nurse the baby during your workday, or if the baby's caregiver can bring him or her to you during the workday. Most full time WOHMs use a double electric pump, either a hospital-grade rental or a personal use pump. Occasionally a mom will find that a manual pump or hand expression works well enough for her and her baby's needs. The two pump brands recommended by many lactation consultants and pumping moms are Medela and Ameda, although Hygeia is rapidly gaining ground.
Also thanks to the ACA (aka ObamaCare), many insurance plans are required to cover lactation services and devices, including a breast pump. Call your insurer for details on exactly what is covered and how to obtain your pump if one is covered by your plan. Insurers vary widely in what they provide; some only shell out for a manual pump while others will cover a hospital-grade rental or a good quality personal use double electric. You may be able to pay the difference to upgrade and you may be able to request a specific pump, but don't count on it. There may also be rules requiring you to get your pump from an in-network Durable Medical Equipment (DME) provider, and you may need a doctor's order to get it. You may not be allowed to request your free pump until after your baby is born, or not until a month before your due date. A lot of customer service reps at the insurance companies are pretty clueless on pump coverage so be prepared to call a few times before you get good answers.
I had some issues getting my ObamaPump, because I wanted a Hygeia and their DME middleman, Carecentrix, didn't want to accommodate that request even though there was an in-network DME provider who carries Hygeia pumps. Carecentrix told me that neither my OB or I could specify a particular brand or model of pump, that whatever in-network DME they chose would provide whatever was in stock. After repeated phone calls I finally gave up and went with the Carecentrix process. I only learned later that I could have bypassed useless Carecentrix entirely and contacted that in-network DME myself - you live and learn, right?
I have never used a hospital-grade rental so I can't recommend one over another. I'm on my second round of using my trusty Medela Freestyle, and the pump works for me although I worry if the motor will make it through another 9 months of pumping at work for Hannah. My insurance company provided me an Ameda Purely Yours, which frankly I'm not thrilled with. I would love to try a Hygeia Enjoye; Hygeia appeals to me because the pump is a closed system, is recyclable, and the company is WHO Code-compliant.
I also keep a Medela Harmony manual pump in my pump bag just in case of a problem with my double electric. I use the Harmony on weekends when I only want to pump a bit and don't feel like washing all of the parts for the Freestyle.
3. You need a way to hold, transport, and store your milk before feeding. To some extent, the method you use will be determined by your supply and your feeding strategy. I prefer to feed fresh (refrigerated) milk as much as possible but I have excess milk beyond Hannah's needs while she's at daycare, so I am both collecting milk for the next day's daycare bottles and to go into the freezer stash for later use or possible donation. Many double electric pumps come with four collection bottles and an insulated cooler tote with a reusable blue ice pack, and this works perfectly well for many working moms. You pump into the bottles at work, the tote works to keep the milk cool and make it easy to carry home, and then you can pour into the bottles that you will use for feeding.
Some moms prefer to use hard plastic or glass containers for long term storage. In my experience, most prefer milk storage bags. With Lily I exclusively used Lansinoh bags. With Hannah I have tried milk storage bags from Lansinoh, Medela, NUK, The First Years, and Honeysuckle, and my favorite are the Honeysuckle bags. The plastic is soft yet durable, the double zipper is easy to use, they have a gusset that allows the bag to stand up on its own, the price is reasonable, and they are oxo-biodegradable (which means the plastic won't be sitting in a landfill for 100+ years). NONE of the milk storage bags have accurate volume markings; I don't trust them at all so if I want an accurate measurement I pour into a Medela collection bottle and then into a storage bag. This volume measurement inaccuracy is also why I don't pump directly into storage bags, even when it's an option.
My personal process is to pump directly into a drop in liner in a nurser on the left side (using the Playtex pump adapter) and a Medela collection bottle on the right. I do this because the right is my higher producing side and I would easily overflow a 4 oz drop in during my first pumping session of the day. After my pumping session I pour milk from the Medela bottle into the drop in to make up the 3 or 4 ounces that the baby will take in a daycare feeding, and I cap the nurser with its nipple/ring/cap. Excess milk goes into a milk storage bag. Multiply by three pumping sessions and I have three bottles already prepared when I get home! I simply have to label the bottles and pop them into the fridge for the next day. The filled milk storage bag is labeled with date and volume and goes into the freezer. This system has the additional bonus of reducing my washing-up every evening.
4. You need a way to feed the baby your milk. Barring some sort of special medical need or a persistent bottle refuser, this will probably be bottles. We've used Playtex Nursers with Drop Ins as our bottle for both of our kids and have had zero issues. My mom used nursers for my brother (who is in his late 20s - they've been around a long time!) and at the time I was pregnant with Lily, I figured we'd give them a shot. They are inexpensive and available everywhere, and the collapsing liner reduces baby's air intake/spitting up. I like that I can pump directly into Drop Ins using the pump adapters in the Playtex Breast Milk Storage Set. Plus, I am lazy as hell and with nursers, you usually only really need to wash the nipples and rings between feedings - a lot faster than washing full bottles, especially bottles that have a bunch of extra parts (Dr. Browns, Breastflow, Calma, etc.). We bought two 3-packs of 4 oz nursers (to let me pump directly into three of them at work each day while the other three are at daycare) and that will meet the baby's needs the entire time.
Cups, either sippy, straw, or open, are another option for older babies. We transitioned to sippy cups when Lily was around 11 months old. Again, this is a personal thing that depends on your baby; we ended up using a couple of different sippy cup brands.
5. You need a way to wash everything. At work during the day I use Medela Quick Clean Pump Wipes to wipe out my parts, which I dry with a clean paper towel (I store my parts in the fridge during the work day, so a thorough scrubbing is not needed). These pump wipes are a bit spendy but are big in size, so I cut them in half and keep them in a small Rubbermaid container.
At home we use Dapple Baby Bottle and Dish Liquid and either the Munchkin Deluxe Bottle Brush or the OXO Tot Bottle Brush to hand wash pump parts and bottle nipples/rings. I sanitize my pump parts in the microwave using a Medela Quick Clean Micro Steam Bag. Pump parts and bottle nipples and rings are dried on a Boon Grass drying rack - we have the Twig and Stem accessories and I prefer Twig for bottle nipples and rings, and Stem for pump parts. When baby transitions from bottle to cup, Munchkin Dishwasher Baskets are great (and reduce hand washing substantially).
6. You might want some accessories. Strictly speaking you don't need any of this stuff, but they can make the entire process of pumping and feeding go more smoothly.
Pumping hands-free is the only way to go - I can knit, read, or do actual work while pumping! I use the Simple Wishes hands-free pumping bra and love it. If you don't want to spend the money, a lot of moms recommend the rubber band trick or cut slits in appropriate spots of a looser-fitting sports bra.
Daycare requires that bottles be labeled with the baby's name, and that each individual bottle is labeled with the date and quantity of breast milk or formula. We use Mabel's Labels with the baby's name on each nurser and Label Once erasable food storage labels for date and quantity. Both labels are super durable and hold up well to repeated cycles through the bottle warmer at daycare and hand washing/the dishwasher at home. Our daycare encourages sending backup milk to keep in the freezer in case of a leak or an unexpectedly hungry baby. I use the Playtex Breast Milk Storage Set to freeze 2-3 oz of milk in Drop Ins, which means that if and when backup milk is needed, the caregivers don't have to pour or transfer milk from a milk storage bag, further reducing the chance of spillage or waste.
I am blessed with slight oversupply and thus an ample freezer stash. The First Years Breastflow Milk Storage Organizer is great to keep milk organized and protected in our chest freezer. It fits most brands of milk storage bag, although rather than freezing in the organizer I freeze my milk bags flat and then load them into the organizer.
No comments:
Post a Comment