Going back to work

I won’t talk about how hard it is emotionally to go back to work. I had a good experience because my husband was able to stay home with the baby after I went back and I would FaceTime him throughout the day on my pump breaks. It’s tough, but it gets better.

Before going back to work, I knew that breastfeeding was a priority for me so I reached out to my office manager prior to going back to come up with a plan. Thankfully, my team was very supportive allowing me to pump 2-3 times per day depending on the patient schedule.

With the kind of work I do, I frequently have to pump in different areas of the hospital. Sometimes, I’m in my office but other times I pump in patient rooms between seeing patients. I carry my pump everywhere. In my experience, I found that people are very supportive of breastfeeding and never had any issues finding a place to pump.

There is a place downstairs from my office that is currently undergoing construction and I use of the rooms there to pump. Someone put some building supplies in my room one day but when one of the workers found out that I was using the room to pump, they apologized and moved everything out immediately. I learned that even the construction workers were supportive of breast feeding – one of them even shared the story of how hard his wife worked on breastfeeding.

The key was that my co-workers are all very supportive. They don’t mind when I have to step away so I can pump. It’s good to have a supportive environment at work. Pumping is hard enough as it is.

Proud pumping moment!!

How I spent my lunch for 9 months at work