As a breastfeeding counselor, much of your work is assisting new mothers in establishing breastfeeding. Another important part is helping breastfeeding mothers reach their breastfeeding goals. Many parents hope to breastfeed for at least 6 months, often 12, and some prefer to breastfeed until a toddler is ready to wean.

Regardless of your client’s initial or long-term goals, many mothers will return to work during their breastfeeding journey. As a breastfeeding counselor, you can help them prepare beforehand and assist with maintaining after returning to work.

Education and support during the early days of breastfeeding can be vital to helping mothers reach their goals even after going back to work.

Here are important things to know to support your clients:

Focus On Establishing A Good Latch And Supply

While preparing to return to work is important, getting a good latch is the first step. Certainly, many mother baby pairs may exclusively pump or introduce bottles early on, but that can make things more challenging for many.

Establishing a good latch can help a mother’s milk supply keep up with her baby’s demands. It can also reduce nipple pain, discomfort and damage making it easier to take up pumping later on.

If a mother is returning to work around 6 weeks or later, she may want to focus on latching for the first 2-3 weeks. At 3 weeks, she can begin adding one extra pumping session and introduce baby to the bottle. If she waits more than 3 weeks to introduce the bottle, some infants will be less likely to cooperate with the transition. That said, many babies can learn these skills at any stage.

In the US, up to 25% of women return to work or school within 2 weeks of giving birth. These women may face additional challenges in establishing and maintaining milk supply. However, if they have proper support it’s still quite doable. They may want to spend the first week just breastfeeding, then slowly introduce pumping and bottles.

Mothers Do Not Need A Large Stash To Return To Work

Contrary to what many mothers worry about, a large freezer stash isn’t necessary for returning to work. Enough milk for one shift at work plus a couple extra bottles for wiggle room is often plenty. Many women worry they aren’t able to pump enough before going to work. This is because they are asking their body to produce extra rather than pumping a missed feed.

Once a mother returns to work, she’s often able to pump plenty as she’s not asking her body to make extra. She is simply pumping the milk her baby would have consumed rather than making extra.

While pumps aren’t quite as efficient as babies, many do quite well. Extra massage, warm compresses, a reminder of baby, relaxation are all great ways to help with pumping. Some women also utilize power pumping sessions to mimic a baby’s growth spurt.

A power pumping session is about 10 minutes actively pumping, 10 minute break, 10 minutes actively pumping, etc. for 40-60 minutes. This mimics a baby having frequent feeds and encourages the body to produce more milk.

If a mother happens to have extra milk, great. However, if she doesn’t have a large stash you can help reassure her why it isn’t necessary.

Find The “Magic” Number For Breastfeeding And Returning To Work

It can be challenging to know for sure, but as a breastfeeding counselor you can help a mother gauge how much milk she needs for her shift. Many women find it easiest to plan to feed right before separating from baby and again as soon as she reconnects. That means baby may be able to go 2-3 hours after she leaves and 2-3 hours before she returns without a feed.

If a baby feeds more frequently than 2-3 hours, she may need to adjust how frequently she pumps. For the most part, a mother simply needs to pump for each missed feed.

Encourage Her To Learn The Law And Inform Her Employer

Before returning work, it’s helpful for a mother to know her legal rights as well as inform HR of her plans to breastfeed.

In most places, her workplace is required to provide private space, not including a bathroom, for pumping. She’s also often allowed a certain number of breaks for pumping. For women who work in healthcare, teaching, etc., the less flexible schedules can be challenging. They may need to talk to fellow employees and find out their rights.

You can help your client come up with a doable plan. You can also help them learn about combo feeding if pumping and working isn’t manageable to maintain a full milk supply.

Provide Practical Support And Advice For Breastfeeding And Returning To Work

For new mothers, there’s a lot of tricks to master. As a certified breastfeeding counselor, you’re likely to be familiar with short cuts and tricks to help make pumping easier.

Some of these things include:

• Buying multiple pump parts to lessen the frequency of washing
• Refrigerating pump parts between pumping sessions
• Purchase convenience items such as pump wipes, microwave sanitizing kits, etc.
• If she has access to multiple pumps, leaving a pump at work and one at home
• Keep snacks in her pump bag
• Get extra ice packs to avoid running into forgetting to thaw a one and only ice pack
• Get a handheld pump or become familiar with hand expression in case she can’t use her electric pump

It’s not always easy getting used to life with a new addition, breastfeeding, pumping and going back to work. However, with your support, you can help the transition be just a bit easier.

Educate About PACED Feeding and Overfeeding

A big reason many struggle to keep up milk supplies is caregivers aren’t always familiar with breast milk consumption. A breastfed baby many never consume more than 3-5 ounces while a formula fed baby often increases their intake as they get older.

Breastmilk changes as baby ages and adjusts to their caloric needs. Formula does not change, hence an increase in volume.

Feeding at the breast also requires more work and allows baby to pause and take in only what they desire. A bottle can easily overfeed depending on the position. As long as a bottle is in a young infants mouth, they often continue to suckle even if they no longer need more.

As a breastfeeding counselor, you can educate your clients so they can educate their caregivers. PACED bottle feeding allows baby to control the flow from the bottle. This reduces the chances of overfeeding and going through a mother’s milk stash quickly.

You can encourage your client to give her caregivers handouts with information about PACED bottle feeding, milk storage and handling, and how much milk a breastfed infant needs.

Each baby is unique, but on average a breastfed baby will take 1-1.5ozs per hour between feeds. For example, if baby eats every two hours, she may consume 2-3ozs. If baby feeds every three hours, she might consume 3-4.5ozs.

While formula fed infants often take larger volumes and space out their feeds to 4 hours, many breastfed infants continue to feed every 2-3 hours.

Taking time to help educate your client can be an integral part of helping her reach her breastfeeding after returning to work goals. Whether she plans to take it day by day or has a long-term goal in mind, support and education are key.