One of the perks of living in Canada is the one-year maternity leave that mothers get. Yes, ONE whole year to bond with your baby! I love it. But guess what? Even with the one year, I’m not emotionally ready to return to work. In fact, I’ve been stressing and agonizing about the idea of going back and putting my daughter in daycare. My goal was to make enough money to be able to take another year off. Since that is not an option (yet), I’ve been looking for ways to make this transition as smooth as possible. Check out my 3 breastfeeding tips for the working moms.
3 Breastfeeding Tips For the Working Moms #MedelaCanada
My son started daycare at 18 months. He was still breastfeeding at the time but refused the bottle. So I didn’t bother with pumping and storing for him. Surprisingly enough he wasn’t weaned until after his 2nd birthday. I think my daughter will do the same. It’s so funny how alike these two are. Today, I have some tips for you mommies that are going back to work and still wish to continue to breastfeed.
Pump and store breastmilk
If you plan on breastfeeding while going back to work, I highly suggest pumping and storing your breastmilk ahead of time. The Medela Freestyle comes with a breastmilk feeding accessories pack. It has everything you will need to store your breastmilk ($40 value). I love that the Medela Freestyle comes with a cooler bag and ice pack. You can pump while working and store the milk in the cooler bag.
Stay on track with the MyMedela App
Every time I go see my baby’s doctor, I get questions such as “how many poo a day?” or “how long does baby feed on the right breast?” Like, who keeps tracks of this?? But doctors do ask those questions. I highly suggest that new moms (breastfeeding or bottle feeding), get the MyMedela App. This app lets you track everything from how many diapers (pee, poo, or both) your baby has to the amount of sleep baby gets. It also allows you to track how long you’re are breastfeeding or pumping. You can get the App on both iOS and Android.
Go hands-free
The Freestyle double electrical breast pump comes with hands-free attachments. That completely blew me away. You can pump and do other things at the same time! I’m no stranger to the Medela brand. It is the brand that I use with both of my children. Up until recently, I was using a manual pump. It works well, but when using it, I couldn’t do anything but that. When I got the Medela Freestyle pump, I was so excited to learn that it came with those hands-free attachments. Now I can blog, fold clothes, do the dishes, whatever really, and pump at the same time.
In just a week, I will be putting my daughter in daycare for the first time. I’m nervous! I don’t remember being this nervous with my son! I thought having a second child would make the whole process easier.
I’m curious, how long is the maternity leave where you are? Do you plan on breastfeeding when you go back to work? Do you have other breastfeeding tips to share with me?
Visit Medela.ca to learn more about the Freestyle double breast pump and everything that comes with it.
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“Disclosure: I am part of the PTPA Brand Ambassador Program with Medela Canada, and I received Compensation as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.”
I did breastfeed my babies, but I never could pump. I’d always wind up with hardly any breast milk at all when I tried to pump. Breast pumps have come a long way since then.
I am so sharing this with my friend who just returned to work last week after only 6 weeks at home and is having a tough time juggling all the demands of a high pressure job and getting enough time to pump for my Godson! great post
I love that they made an app!!! These are great tips for any mom breastfeeding while working.
This is such a great post. Breastfeeding can be so much more difficult that just slapping your baby on your boob. It’s DIFFICULT!
It really is! It took my son 3 weeks to latch on properly! Those 3 weeks were so frustrating for the both of us. I’m glad I didn’t give up.
There is an app for everything now isn’t there! I bet this would be helpful to my friend who is breastfeeding. I’ll tell her about it 🙂
I worked and pumped too! It was hard but so worth it. Would have been nice to have had this app to help!
I breastfed each of my kids for two years. These are great tips on breastfeeding. My pump was so important to me during that time.
I had one of these breast pumps! I loved how easy it was to work. I don’t go back to work after I had my son, but if I did I would have pumped and freeze it for later!
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These are some great tips for working moms who breastfeed. I haven’t had to deal with that as I worked from home with each time I breastfed, with exception of first born but that’s a whole different story in itself. The gist is I was always home, I can’t imagine how hard it would be to breastfeed and work outside of home. Great tips you shared!
Wow! I have never know what it takes for a woman to breast feed. I have not had the blessing to have a child yet, but I like to know that there is an app to help keep me on schedule if I ever get the chance.
Wow, a whole year – that is amazing! I only had six week and definitely wished that I had more.
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I breast feed both of my kids and these things would have helped to know starting out! That app sounds like it could be a very useful tool.
These are great tips for those moms going back to work that are breastfeeding. I also used a manual pump when I was breastfeeding and would have loved a hands free breast pump when I was breastfeeding. The app for keeping track of the feedings, diaper changes, etc. would have been nice back than too. Thanks for sharing the tips.
Having a baby and going back to work is definitely a juggling act, and the tips in this article to manage pumping breast milk while at work are really helpful. It was good to know that insurance covers pump rentals, so thank you for that information. Also, it is important to know you have a right under the law to have break time to pump.
Great tips! We love our medela pump. I don’t use it as often as I’d like so I can build up my stash but I guess thats a perk of working from home!
I miss the days of breastfeeding! I bet that app would have been great when I was working and pumping.
These are great tips for nursing moms who work! I know these are going to help a lot of Mamas!
My baby is a month old and is breast feed and I love these tips! They will help out a new mom for sure!
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These are great breastfeeding tips! The app sounds great and I really need to check it out. Thanks for sharing!
These are really good tips. I understand it can be a tough transition when mom goes back to work.
I wish I have this app back when I was still breastfeeding! Such a cool app to have and great tips 🙂