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If you breastfed, how long did you keep it up after going back to work? Did your workplace have a dedicated room to pump?”

Asked by The Work It, Mom! Team on 2nd January 2008

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Comments so Far...

My story is similar to Boineau's in terms of how long and how often I pumped. The university I worked at had one lactation room with two curtained off stalls, which was so popular they opened another one around the time I stopped. They didn't have a shared pump but DUH! that would make so much sense. I bought two pumps so I wouldn't have to lug it around. I stopped pumping around 8 months when she fully reverse-cycled and stopped taking a bottle a daycare (and was still nursing at home 4-5x with co-sleeping). We're still nursing!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by relaxnsmile on 19th March 2008
Like kerflop I work at home and my son weaned himself at about 26 months. I started working from home soon after he was born.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Gayatri on 13th January 2008
Oh, and there wasn't a designated room, but we had this nice "shower room" that had a bench, an outlet, and a lock on the door, it worked perfectly.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by mommy2kiera on 11th January 2008
After returning to work at 12 weeks, I continued to pump and breastfeed at night until my daughter was 9 months old, then my milk dried up, or I would have gone longer.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by mommy2kiera on 11th January 2008
I took off 6mths for maternity leave and pumped for an additional 2. I had my own office, and I kep the milk in the office fridge everyday, but it was a lot of work to clean my pump accessories. I ran into men in the office all of the time who would see me cleaning my stuff and quickly run the other way. It was pretty funny.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Karen on 11th January 2008
I continued to breastfeed both of my daughters for 12 months after returning to work. Pumping at work sucked because I'd have to schedule it around classes and spend my short breaks pumping. There wasn't a dedicated room but there was a comfortable meeting room with a locking door that I used.

It worked fine and I'm glad I made the effort.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Caitlin on 10th January 2008
I breastfed all 3 of my kids to various extents while working full-time. For my oldest, I pumped for 3 months until she was 6 months old. My second daughter was exclusively breastfed until she reached 11 months old and I pumped for her until my milk supply went down so much that we had to add a formula feeding (at 11 months). With my youngest, I was home with her until she was 6 months old and then when I returned to working full-time, I pumped for another 3 months, while having supply issues. None of my workplaces supplied a private lactation room - I've pumped in restroom lounges, conference rooms and empty offices.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Deb - Mom of 3 Girls on 10th January 2008
I took 3 months maternity leave, then returned to my job as an attorney full time. I continued to pump and breastfeed until my son turned 1. I was able to pump in my own office. When my son was 3-7 months, I pumped 3x a day while at work, then when he was probably 8 -10 months, I was able to only pump at lunch. For the last 2 months, I did not have to pump at all, but still had enough milk to breastfeed him once in the morning and once at night. I found breastfeeding to be such a special bonding time with him, especially after being apart all day, that I wanted it to last as long as possible, as long as he felt the same way. I am very proud of the length of time he breastfed, especially considering that many of my friends, who are stay at home moms, usually stop at 3 or 4 months!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by boineau1 on 10th January 2008
I'm lucky to be a WAHM. I only had 6 weeks of maternity leave. Since I WAH, though, I was able to continue pumping and nursing for quite some time. I pumped for 12 months, and nursed for 19. The pumping was especially difficult near the end, but I'm glad I did it so DH could feed DD some bottles every once in a while. My original goal was to nurse for 12 months... then I changed my goal to 18 months. I'm very proud that I reached my goal. :) I'm not sure if it would have been as "easy" if I was WOH though?

Flag as inappropriate Posted by WAH(web)Mommy on 9th January 2008
I only took 8 weeks off from work to have my child. I continued to BF until I saw a tooth. That was our pact.

I pumped in the private restroom. And stored the milk in the fridge.

No probs.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Uhura on 8th January 2008
Glad to see this discussion here. I just wrote about the difficulty I'm having transitioning my 6 month old to one bottle of formula a day on the Chicago Moms Blog (www.chicagomomsblog.com). We have a dedicated pump room at my office, but it is always in use and it's hard to break away more than once a day to pump. My daughter, unfortunately, hates formula.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Marketing Mommy on 7th January 2008
I went back to work after 12w and pumped for another 12w. I only worked 3 days a week, so it was tough to find the pumping/feeding rhythm. There was not a dedicated pump room, I had to bring a stool to the bathroom to pump. Not the best conditions ever. My new office has 3 rooms dedicated to pumping.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by klg on 4th January 2008