Tips for Pumping

In the U.S., maternity leave is not guaranteed. Some people get two weeks, some people get 6, and sometimes people get 12 weeks. This is all usually unpaid leave. Parents who choose or financially have to go back to work but wish to maintain nursing or breastfeeding when they are home with their child have to pump at work. Even with midwifery care throughout my pregnancy and postpartum, there wasn’t ever a time I specifically learned how to use a pump. I remember my doula giving me LOTS of helpful advice and looking on Pinterest for how to use my Spectra (which I biasedly think is the Cadillac of breast pumps). Only when my daughter was on her NG-tube in the NICU and wasn’t able to have anything but IV fluids, did I receive direct help with pumping, and by then I already had an oversupply.

Granted, exclusively pumping when you are newly postpartum is not recommended and with your milk still being on supply-and-demand mode, pumping as often as a newborn would eat (every 2-3 hours) was probably going to give me an oversupply anyways. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

I know so many parents focus on getting a good latch in the first few weeks, and most lactation help in the early days is around latching and weighted feeds. While that is SO important, parents with a count down to return to work often can’t wait until after the first 6 weeks to introduce bottles and pump.

Enter World Breast Pump Day! This day exists to raise awareness about why pumping is so common in the U.S., advocating for pumping rights and conditions in the work place, and educating others on how to effectively pump, get a pump through insurance, and more.

To download what I wish I knew about pumping when I began, including a Pumping 101 Checklist fill out the form below!

-xo, Kayla