Many moms decide to enter the breast pumping world around the time they start thinking about heading back to work.  Finding the right daycare, coping with leaving your little baby, and managing a workload can be stressful enough let alone finding time to pump at work!  Here's some ideas to help the transition go a little smoother...

• Try thinking about your typical work schedule and what time the best opportunities to pump will be and start mimicking that pumping schedule at home.
• Introduce the bottle to your baby at least a week before you head back to work - this can take time for babies to adjust to, especially if you were full time breastfeeding before.
  
• Pack your pumping bag as much as possible the night before.
• Rinse & store your parts in a refrigerator at work in-between pumping sessions to save time & washing.
• If you're comfortable and have a decent amount of commute time - think about pumping while you're driving - be sure to get the Hands Free Pump Bra first!
• Bring a picture of you baby with you.

Happy Pumping!

If you've ever been blessed with extra breast milk and wondered what to do with it, consider doing a milk donation.  There are lots of critically ill babies and premature babies that studies have shown breast milk can provide  immense nutritional benefits for.   If you're interested in donating milk or you know someone with a baby in need of breast milk, I recommend you look into www.milkbanking.net that have a very informative website regarding the process and can help you connect to a local bank or organization to make your milk donation.

Other recent studies have shown cancer patients have been able to significantly up their immune systems while receiving chemotherapy treatment, but consuming breast milk.  While most milk banks are set up for milk donations for babies, some may be able to help you connect with the right people to donate to cancer patients.  Others I have heard, contact Oncology department directly and have had some success that way as well.

Happy Holidays & Happy Pumping!

Power Pumping is a trick exclusive pumpers use to increase their breast milk supply.  The process mimics what is called cluster feeding if you were breast feeding.  A Power Pumping session will signal to your body that it needs to make more milk. So how do I do it?

1. Start pumping like you normally would for a pumping session (same settings).
2. Pump for about 15 minutes.
3. Turn your pump off and take a break for 5 minutes.
4. Turn your pump on and pump for 10 minutes.
5. repeat steps 3 and 4 until it been 1 hour since you started pumping.

I personally like to do this watching a favorite one hour tv show, it makes the time past faster.  And to eliminate watching the clock, I pump the first 15 minutes and then use commercial breaks as my time to turn off the pump.

You'll want to use your power pumping session in place of a normal pumping session.  I'd recommend doing this once a day for a week and you should notice an increase in your milk supply.  I've had many moms tell me they think they get better results in the morning if they do their power pump in the evening or as the last pump before bed - no scientific reasoning for the timing but hey it's worth a shot!

Happy Pumping!

In the first 12 weeks of breast pumping you're working with your body to build a great supply of milk and you should be pumping at a MINIMUM 8 times per day. Ideally is every 2-3 hours. To kick start your supply here's what I recommend...

• 0-4 weeks: every 2 hours pumping both sides at the same time
• 4-8 weeks: every 2.5-3 hours pumping both sides at the same time
• 8-12 weeks: every 3 hours pumping both sides at the same time

For the duration of each pumping session I recommend 20-25 minutes.

Around the 10 week mark many moms start to question - how do I do this. Don't worry it's completely normal to think this, you meeting a very demanding schedule and your at what is commonly seen as peak exhaustion for your body trying to adjust to your new "sleeping" or not really sleeping schedule. It gets easier, I promise!

Happy Pumping!