Hellobee Boards

Legally, workplaces must provide some type of private place for you to pump. I'm not sure the exact requirements (if the company needs to be a certain size or not), but it's the law now. You must be allowed the time and place for pumping.

I'm lucky enough to WAH so a pumping room has only been required when I went into the office. At those times I just contacted HR to find out what I needed to do.

Here you go @adira: http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14389

I took maternity leave for 3 months and then pumped at work for 7 months so that I can give my baby breastmilk for a year. We had a small nursing room in one of the floors of our office that had a comfy recliner chair. The hardest part was carving out 20 minutes/2 times a day. I would take my Medela Pump In Style with me to work and store the milk in bottles in the fridge. Actually I first put the milk bottles in an insulator bag and put the whole bag in the fridge. It wasn't the most convenient thing in the world, but I was so determined to provide breastmilk that it kept me motivated to keep going!

My company has a nursing/pumping room that has a lock on it (wish I had an office). It's hard to find time to carve out to pump but I do it 3x/day. Once, in the morning, lunchtime, and in the afternoon. Also, since my little one sleeps til after 7, I pump in the morning at 5:45 to get a jump start on my day and that's about 1/3 of the pumping for the day. I have to pump ~2x for each bottle that he needs to take at daycare, if the 3x + morning session are not enough then I pump before I go to bed. He's starting to wake in the middle of the night though so I'm definitely having trouble planning.

Another suggestion if you don't have a room is your car. I bought the power adapter and can pump in the car in the parking lot (using my nursing cover) if I ever need to.

Now if only I could increase my supply so that I didn't have to pump 5x/day. I'm thinking about MoreMilk, anyone used that?

Yep. I pump every 2 hours every day at work - 8:30, 10:30, 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 if Im still there at that time. On nights and weekend I BF her on demand as often as she wants. I have it down to a science and each pumping session takes about 15 mins total. My company does have a private "lactation room" (aka an empty office), so I leave my pump there during the day. I also take Fenugreek and More Milk Plus to keep my supply up (another reason I pump so frequently.) Keep in mind most people wont pump as frequently as I do, but I had major supply issues when I started so I pump a LOT to be sure my supply maintains.

I had no idea that it was a law for a pumping room to be provided. I work for my county's DA's office, and unless there's one in the courthouse outside of our offices, I don't think we have one. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going to go back to work after we have kids, but if I do I'll definitely be pumping during the day.

I am currently pumping at work & breastfeed at night & on the weekends. I returned to work at 3 months, and my baby girl is now 9 months old. I work for a small company (less than 40 employees), but our HR director advised that he would be providing a lactation room upon my return from leave. In the beginning, I would pump at 6 am (at home), then again at 9:30 am, 11:30 am and then 2:30 pm. We breastfeed in the evenings around 6:30 pm, and then I have always pumped one last time before bed. Now that she is older & eating fewer times a day, I just pump when I wake up, then twice at work- once in AM, once in PM, breastfeed around dinner time & one last pumping session before bed.

Our goal it to make it to a year. I agree- pumping 1st thing in the morning is key - or if you breastfeed in the AM, pump any leftover milk as your supply is very high in the AM. Don't worry too much about how much you pump (sounds difficult) - but more than likely, if your LO drinks a 5 or 7 oz bottle at daycare, you probably won't produce that much in one single session. The goal is to pump 1 extra time a day so that she has enough milk (i.e. LO eats 4 times a day (3 bottles & 1 BFing session), so I pump 1 extra time to keep up.

Has worked out great - it makes working much easier knowing that she can still have breastmilk everyday!

I go back on Monday and am going to pump. I really hope my supply doesn't tank. I need to pump about 15 ounces a day within ten hours.

I've been pumping at work since I went back to work when DS was 9 weeks old. I'm lucky enough to have my own office, with a lock on my door, so I just shut the door and keep on working while pumping. I'm actually pumping as I type this. (since I know you all totally wanted to know what my boobs were doing right now)
My supply was awesome for the first ~3.5 months and I filled my freezer with frozen milk, then I had about three days when I could really pump, and my supply TANKED. I've kept on pumping, but now I'm lucky if I pump in a day what DS eats in one feeding at daycare, and he has three bottles.
I'm super lucky in that tons of women in my division at work have had babies in the last year, and everybody has pumped, so everyone is used to seeing the Medela coolers in the fridge and the steam bags in the microwave and the large-breasted nursing women rinsing out gear in the sink.
My big fear is that I'll be so tired at some point that I'll forget to put myself back together before I leave my office, and I'll just walk out into the hall with my boobs hanging out.

I had to pump in the bathroom at work it was gross and after awhile I had to go to my car since it was a bathroom that only had one toliet and no stall so people were complaining that I had to be in the restroom for 15 minutes.

@Rachel-I did the other day. I used the battery pack with my PISA and a hands free bra. Pulled my tank down and my top p and draped a scarf around me so nobody could see. I will say though, that I barely got any output, even with a letdown. Maybe bc I couldn't concentrate? I dunno. I don't know if it's legal or not. Both my hands were on the wheel though lol

Yup! I went back 3 days a week at 10 weeks and my son is now 7.5 months. I pump 2 or 3 times at work depending on how long I'm there. Then I BF on the days I'm home. My pump actually really increases my supply, and I always have more output when I'm pumping a few days in a row vs BFing. I'd like to BF longer than a year, but really hoping it will work out to hang up the pump right at one year. Love/hate and all

I guess my question is how do you have time to slip away 3x a day to pump? I have my own office but only 1 hr for lunch?

Pumping moms, can you help explain?

@Clementine: For me I don't have scheduled breaks or anything. When I was pumping I would have to make time for it or it would never happen. I work for a consulting company so I have to account for every minute of my time. It made my days a lot longer since I would get to work by 7:30am, pump for 30-45 minutes around 9am, either go to daycare to nurse my son at noon or pump at lunch (always had to bring food from home since that was faster), and then pump again for another 30-45 minutes around 3pm. I'd get to leave around 5pm. It seems for me it was about setting priorities to make it happen.

@Clementine: Have you asked for blinds? My office has a lot of windows both to the outside and the inside. I asked for blinds to be put up and my company was willing to accommodate. Even my new district manager didn't have blinds and asked how I got mine and I told her she just needed to request them. It is typically a low cost for the company for keeping their employee happy and engaged in work.

@Clementine: Yes, if you can pump from your desk that would be way easier. The only thing I like about our pump room is that there is a sink so I can rinse out my parts before packing them up. It definitely adds a minute or two to my pump time having to go up 6 floors to the room and back down when done.