Work and breastfeeding - can it be done?

A friend talked about her breastfeeding days to me today. She fully breastfed her baby for 3months and partial (breastmilk and formula milk) till 6 months. During those time, she has people who 'condemned' her for giving up breastfeeding. My story is opposite from her, I gets 'condemn' for breastfeeding my 15 months old child till now. I breastfed my older child till 18 months old. In France, most mothers breastfeed their babies until 6 months old. It is extremely rare to find a mother still breastfeeding a baby beyond that age.

Now, I don't convince anyone to breastfeed their child. I only offer advise on breastfeeding if my friends come to me for help. It is entirely the mothers' choice and decision on how they want to feed their child.

When I used to be working, I pumped at work every 2-3hrs. You need very understanding colleagues and bosses who are 'open' with you missing from the office to do your pumping. Of course, sometimes it's better to let them know so they don't think you are off to go shopping somewhere. Hah! How I wish. Some companies offer a nursing room but my previous company do not have one so I used any empty rooms that were available (meeting rooms, empty office cubicle, toilets, storerooms).  I always have this black bag that I lugged around.

I was very fortunate to receive a hand-me-down Medela Pump In Style from a cousin. So I save money from buying an expensive pump. It's cost about SGD$600-$700 at that time. It's a very expensive investment but it definitely save a lot of time pumping and very effective in getting your breastmilk out without the pain. At that time, my pumping schedule was like this:

• 6am - Pump milk for 15-30mins. Prepare for work. 
• 7.30am - Breastfed baby before leaving the house.
• 10.30am - Pump milk
• 12noon - Pump during lunch time.
• 3pm - Pump milk 
• 5.30pm or 6pm - Pump milk before knocking off
• 8pm or 9pm - breastfed baby

Sometimes, I have meetings or have to travel outside of office, I will have to change my pumping schedule or even brought my pump with me if I'm not in the office. Yes, I do get engorgement when meetings overrun or even fever when I did not empty out the breastmilk a few times when I am rushing for time. During those period of time, I drank a lot of water, ate oatmeals and mother's milk tea - traditional medicinals to increase my milk supply. I still continues to eat my pre-natal pills and especially calcium supplements. 

Good luck to breastfeeding mothers and want-to-breastfeed mums out there. End of the day, even if you can't breastfeed, you are still your child's best mum in the world!