Pumping

Here's a post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Jessica Kim about pumping at work.

Remember the song, “Pump…pump it up…yo pumpin’!” It has become my theme song as I walk off to pump throughout the work day. As the founder of a startup, BabbaCo, I brought baby Brandon to work with me and breastfed him in front of anyone and everyone. I used my hooter hider cover, of course, but would breastfeed him even while recruiting new hires! (My co-founder recalls that I was all business from neck up, but in the midst of talking about product lines, you heard baby Brandon literally slurping underneath a cover. Hilarious.)

Related: Do younger moms cope better with pregnancy and babies?

Well, now that Brandon no longer comes to the office, I’m now pumping several times a day. It has become a very public "to do" amongst my 14-person team. "Jessica, you need to pump, right?" "Let’s meet while you pump! I used to whisk away and privately pump, but I soon got comfortable with pumping in front of people.

Here is a pic of me in the bathroom stalls meeting with Stef, my product director, as I pumped. At first, I felt really odd about her seeing my milk for some reason. I obviously got past that quickly.

However, it’s different. I can breastfeed in front of male co-workers, but I can’t pump in front of them. I just feel a bit guarded and awkward. Everyone discusses breastfeeding in public, but what about pumping? Is it different to pump in public vs. breastfeed in public? In both situations, I’m covered, but I have found that people respond differently when it’s a machine sucking my milk out versus. a baby.

Would love to hear your thoughts…before I scare off my 26-year-old bachelor teammate. Thanks!

More great reads from BabyCenter:
Tearjerker alert: Veterans reunite with their family and meet their babies
Did you eat while in labor?
8 healthy, mouthwatering Thanksgiving dishes
How did your pets react to a new baby?
What moms really think about while breastfeeding

Lots of moms are fond of nursing, but it's hard to find a woman who loves to pump. We asked Gina Ciagne, a certified lactation counselor and director of breastfeeding and consumer relations at Lansinoh Laboratories for advice on cutting down a mother's pump time.

• Change the settings throughout the day. Baby's feed differently throughout the day and the breast adjusts to the lil one's demand. A pump with adjustable settings, like the Affinity ($160), allows mama to mimic the tot's nursing rhythms.
• Massage the breast. "Loosening up beforehand, and during pumping, can help guide the milk down a little bit. "When nursing, mom may feel the baby put her hand on the breast, almost feel like pinching. The baby is sending sensory signals to mom’s breast to let the milk down. An extra little massage may help with stimulation."
• Double pump. It may sound obvious, but double pumping allows mama to capture every last drop of milk that her body lets down.
• Warm it up. A baby's mouth is warm – 98.6 degrees to be exact – so warming up the flanges will help speed up the let down process.
• Keep spare parts. A spare set of parts at work (or wherever you plan to do your pumping) will alleviate stress and worry when some pieces are inevitably left at home.

Working moms who breastfeed have to keep their milk supply while they are on the corporate clock. The health care reform bill requires employers to provide nursing moms with space and time to pump, so we asked Gina Ciagne, a certified lactation counselor and director of breastfeeding and consumer relations at Lansinoh Laboratories, for some tips!

• Nurse as often as possible before returning to work. According to Ciagne, "Any time that (mom) and the baby are together, put baby on the breast to establish supply."
• Get a "very good, strong, effective double pump." It will help stimulate both breasts simultaneously, signaling that it is time to let the milk down, and ultimately encourage the body to produce more milk for the next session.
• Learn how to use the pump prior to returning to work. Become familiar with the various parts (of the pump) so there are no surprises during a blocked-out period of pumping time.
• Build up a freezer stash before returning to work. Milk supplies often dip once a mama returns to work. Knowing that there is a healthy supply in the freezer will reduce stress, which could further impact milk production.
• Mimic the baby's feeding schedule. If the baby feeds every two hours, mom should be pumping every two hours. While many workplace environments are not conducive to such frequent pumping, according to Ciagne, even "if she can only get five minutes of pumping in, it's better than skipping a session. If she skips a pumping session, it says to her body 'don’t make the milk next time.'"

Breast, bottle, or both? New moms are faced with a barrage of questions immediately following their lil one's birth, but few receive as much attention as how they will feed their wee one. While doctors and lactation consultants praise the benefits of breastfeeding, some mamas just cannot fathom putting their newborns to their breast. Rather than turn to formula, a growing number of women is relying exclusively on their breast pumps to nourish their tots.

Though there are no statistics to quantify the growing number of bottled breast milk-fed babies, anecdotal evidence suggests that many women choose to rely on the pump due to early latching issues, uneasiness with the concept of nursing and discomfort with potential public feeding sessions. Though the babies receive all of the health benefits of breastmilk (and allow moms to see just how much their wee ones are ingesting), experts worry that mums will not reap the benefits that a nursing mom sees.

Did you exclusively pump for your child?