Pumping w/o scheduled breaks?

[LittleBattleAxe]

I'm a teacher and will be returning to work when my LO is less than a year old. My other children were EBF for over a year (weaned them at 2, 2 1/2, and 3 1/2). I'd really love to be able to provide bm with no supplementing for at least a year with this LO.

I'm not sure how to go about pumping since, as a teacher, I have no scheduled breaks -- I have one 50 minute period set aside to planning/conferences but no guarantee that I will have that period to myself, as it's meant to be used for vertical teaming and parent communications. I have 27 minutes for lunch. That's it.

Assuming I have a good stash in the freezer, and I will be bf'ing on demand when not working, can someone help me figure out the logistics of doing this? Would it work if I pump at home (maybe pump on one breast while LO is nursing on the other side), mornings, late afternoons, and at night? Any thoughts about preventing my supply from crashing? I know fenugreek and oatmeal of course, lots of fluid intake, but not sure if there are other handy tips.

[annettemarie]

I'm going to move this out to the main breastfeeding forum, where you might get more traffic since pumping while working is a common breastfeeding challenge. You may also want to try the Working Mamas forum. Good luck!

[ssh]

If you can't pump during the day, you could have problems with engorgement and even mastitis. It depends on how often your DC usually nurses.

[rhiOrion]

If you are the type who can pump well with a hand pump, it might work well for you to run to the bathroom (do teachers at your work have separate bathrooms? that would be even better) and pump some between classes once a day, or so. Plus lunch. Plus a few minutes during your planning period.

Plus definitely do some pumping while nursing in the morning and at night. You'll get the most output in the morning. Even better if you could drag yourself out of bed to pump between 1-4am. But there's no way I could do that.

[jeminijad]

I really think you are going to have to find a way to steal 5 - 10 minutes once in the morning, and 5 - 10 minutes once in the afternoon.

Even if it is just to get a let down, and you don't get much pumped- no let downs all day long IS going to do serious damage to supply.

[crystal_buffaloe]

This was exactly my situation when I taught high school. I've since moved to community college, where I can work part-time and have breaks to pump, etc.

The new health care law requires that employers with more than 50 employees offer appropriate breaks and a place to pump. I can understand, though, why you wouldn't want to press that.

Are you required to stand in the hallway during passing? How long is your passing period?

I would get a good quality hand pump (Avent Isis or comparable) and insist on at least 15 minutes during your plan period and pump with one hand and eat with the other 15 minutes during lunch at the very least.

I would also see if any of the teachers around you would be willing to babysit/take attendance during their plan periods -- especially if you have students during any kind of announcements/pledge/study hall/administrative BS. That way, if your passing is 6 minutes, and you can get another teacher to cover the first 10 minutes of one period, you should have enough time to express some.

ETA: I just re-read this and realized I was misleading. I was not BFing when I taught high school, I just had a 27 minute lunch and one "plan" period that was dedicated to meetings or subbing for other teachers. I never ate lunch. I didn't even have time to pee. Hopefully, you'll be able to work something out where you can pump at least some each day. If you can carve out 3 fifteen-minute blocks, that should be 30 minutes of pumping, and even if you don't express much, it would help protect your supply.

[LittleBattleAxe]

I just got my schedule and it looks like I have two planning periods, one late morning and one at the end of the day. I know the one at the end of the day is MINE but the one late morning is for team issues so there will be times when I can't count on that. Not sure when my lunch break is, but hopefully between the lunch and the end of day break I will be able to find the time.

I've been thinking about the federal law and wondering how in the world it can apply to teachers... in the last school where I taught I had a 18 minute lunch and one 45 minute conference period which was almost always actually used to conference with someone.

I can absolutely pump early in the AM (like around 3) but I'm afraid I'll be a dripping mess by 9 AM.

Will two times to pump during the day be enough to at least maintain my supply?