Congratulations on your new baby!
A bit sad that maternity leave is over right?
For me I was sad that maternity leave was over because I felt like I was just getting the hang of being a mom to a new baby, figuring out how much sleep I can have when the baby is asleep.
But alas you gotta change that all over again!

One thing I have not heard a lot of is how to be a working mom. The example that I have is of my mom when I was growing up and her sisters...
For my mom, I knew she went to work and came home, prepped food for us, helped with homework and then she went back to doing her schoolwork- she was doing her grad school program then. Nothing was ever mentioned about pumping at work.
He sisters who came to stay w my family for their maternity leave got help; we helped care for our baby cousins while momma and sisters hung out.
They also never mentioned that if you're breastfeeding or nursing a baby and working, you had to do something like pumping at work or coming home earlier than usual to feed the baby.
🍼👼

So you are going back to work, and if you are breastfeeding / nursing like I am, then you have plans to pump at work.
Your work place might have a designated place to pump or your department might have a spot they make for you. If they do not, make sure you request for one.
Here are a few tips from my experience about pumping at work.

1. Not everyone will be excited about your doing so. Depending on where you are pumping, some might claim you are using the spot that was open all the time, some might ask if you were still pumping after 6 weks? And so on…

Here is the link from the US Department of Labor regarding what employers are required to do for nursing mothers.
It says:

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148, known as the “Affordable Care Act”) amended section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) to require employers to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.”

Check out the link here for detailed information
Momma, do not feel guilty about it. Your little one is relying on you to provide food and if you're like me and exclusively Breastfeeding, then that is all the reason you need to not feel guilty.

2. Unless there is a designated room for pumping or Breastfeeding, momma, lock the door to the room you are using to pump for privacy. For my first kid, I shared an office and for courtesy, I left the door unlocked but closed. She knew when the door was shut, I was ppimg and she didn't bother. One day though, one of my managers was looking for one of us and came to the office, he opened the door, good thing I was sitting with my back to the door and I was not exposed. This second time around, I got smart. I have an office to myself and printed a sign that had a cow saying:
Pumpin in progress, comeback later.
There was an incident where someone came looking for me and walked to my door and opened it. Good thing it was locked,
It would have been a different experience...

3. Stay hydrated! It is very easy to get busy and some workplaces especially Healthcare do not allow you to have drinks in the lab / desks etc that we seat at. However, I will say that to keep producing your milk, you need to be hydrated. I get busy so here is how my 8 hour day goes

- arrive at 8: have coffee with milk
Drink water and go back to work.
I have an office / desk so I can do this
- 10am drink coconut water infused drink
- 11am or 11:30 pump and store in refrigerator
- 1pm eat lunch and drink lots of water
- pump again at 3pm
Finish up my work and then go home when my day is up

4. Do not forget to take nursing pads and your pumping equipment with you. I had forgotten my pumping equipment and my breast hurt. Good thing my husband worked later in the day, he brought the equipment to me at work.
One of the days, a colleague pointed to me that I had leaked through my scrubs and I had one dry boob and a wet one showing. I would not have known if she didn't point it out. I had been super busy on this day and had missed the time I set to pump. Oh well, I went and then pumped and used the extra pads I carried in my pumping bag. I put a coat on for the rest of the day to cover the wet spot.

5. You got this! Do not fret

Do you have any experiences you would like to share?

This it what happened and I noticed I had forgotten to wear a nursing pad in the bra 🤦🏾‍♀️

Being hydrated helps with milk production, otherwise it’s just a little bit of milk.