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Be an
ambassador to promote BFG as your colleagues may feel awkward abt seeing
your milk in the refrigerator. I once reassured a senior male manager
who apologised for bumping into me taking my milk out from the
refrigerator that there was nothing to be sorry abt becoz I felt
perfectly normal to be able to "nurse" my baby when I'm away for work.
Who knows, later your management might be pressed to prepare a lactation
room becoz so many female staff pump in the office! (Sze Sze) |
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For
the moo-mies who had just returned to work after maternity leave, it
sure looks depressing because we can see the quantity of milk produced
when you expressed in the office and thus starting to feel
'inadequate'. Remember that the milk quantity naturally drops because
of a new routine in your life. It will and can pick up once you are
used to the new routine of expressing at work and nursing at home.
(Lilian) |
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I
expressed through a simple Pureen breast pump until my baby was 5.5 mths
old. So all those out there who cannot breastfeed but can pump - go
ahead. It's still OK, as long as the baby is having breastmilk. (Topaz) |
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I
pump in the store room of my office. I sterilise the table, bring in one
of the office chairs and this place has been my little hut for dairy
production! ;)
when I have to be
stationed in a new place, say a hotel, I ask for a small room and I've
once park my car near a corner and conduct my biz there! (Sze Sze)
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Your
expressed milk can be kept at indoor air-con room temperature for 10
hours without refrigerating becoz it's full of active antibodies which
would fight off any bacteria found in the milk, so it's still safe to
keep it in a cooler filled with ice or even no ice for abt 10 hours. You
can store your frozen milk (those you pump before returning work or on
weekends) for 6 months in a freezer compartment and store refrigerated
milk in the refrigerator for 24 hours. (Sze Sze) |
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I believe you CAN add fresh breastmilk to previously expressed chilled
breastmilk within a 24 hour period, no problem. I know Lai Yin and I
both keep our pump on the go for the day, topping up until we've got as
much as we want, then wash and sterilize it at the end of the day. But
you can NOT add fresh breastmilk to already FROZEN breastmilk (Jen) |
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This
is
how I do (to) save space
for storing expressed breast milk in the
freezer and
also to avoid spillage
when transfer to the bottle…
After pumping, … I put
EBM
in plastic ice cube
trays and after that transfer the frozen cubes
into a
zip bag. … It makes life
easier for the child
minder as
it thaws quickly, and
it's easy to add an ounce or two more on
hungry days
… I also numbered them so as to keep track of the stocks! I have in each
zipper bag 10 cubes of EBM (about 4 oz.) expressed on the same time.
(Geok Hong) |
You will
need these for successful pumping in the workplace:
Breastpump
Breastshell -keep those precious milk which let down when you are pumping
from the other!
Face
towel - to clean the desk / your outfit
2 or 4
bottles of empty milk bottles depending how much you want to store per
bottle
cooler
box (you will probably receive a few from those baby hampers)
washing /
sterilising equipment
(Sze Sze)
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Hand Expressing:
I use a bigger size bottle, with a wide mouth. Found the normal
bottle too small for my nipple. Milk tends to spray all over.
Use my left hand to press, right hand to catch the milk. Thumb on
the upper part, the rest of the fingers at the lower part. The
angle between thumb and fingers is like a clock at 6 pm. Get it?
Top and bottom. When you move, also at that angle. You can
go clock-wise or counter clock-wise but the angle remains the same
-opposite. Never cubit yourself. All my jari-jari NEVER move on the surface of the
skin. You can get skin burn if you do that. Get a firm hold and gently
squeeze to the nipple area. Don't expect milk to start flowing
immediately. NEVER also squeeze on the aerola. This area is very
sensitive. Once the milk flows, it really flows because they are forced
out instead of being suck out. I had noticed that I get 3 gushes of
milk (in an interval of about 10 mins) each time I express. The milk
will flow but when you get the gushes, you can feel the breast firm up
again and the milk flows more. (Lilian) |
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After all the talk
about milk supply and increasing milk supply, I stumbled upon this
on breastfeeding.com:
http://www.breastfeeding.com/all_about/spangler_anwers4.html
For new mommies who
want to increase their milk supply, a surefire way is to express
after you've finished nursing your babies. Christine and Maria, you
can try this for a few days to see if your supply will increase. Our
body produces milk based on demand and by expressing (even if you
only get a little initially), you're able to trick your body into
thinking that you need to produce more for your growing baby. (Min)
And it doesn't matter
you know, even if you only manage to express
a little, you could
still add it to the formula you are giving - something is better
than nothing right? If you continuing expressing at work it will
keep your the milk supply up even if the amount expressed is very
little .I know mothers who bf in the morning before they leave for
work and when they return home. They do not express but they bf
during weekends and also any time they are at home. The milk supply
will adjust to a set routine. (Nazreen)
When I take time off
from
work to pump, I feel
tremendously at peace and in
tune with myself.
May be becoz I hafta concentrate
on this act or may
be becoz it's a small break of 20
mins, I often feel
relaxed aft coming out of the
storeroom with some
milk for my baby, whatever the
amount is. I have
learned to take things slowly
through pumping for
my baby. (Sze Sze)
A useful tip I got from
my friend who used to express
milk while at work.
Stimulate let down by teasing your nipples with a face
towel. That way, you
will be able to express comfortably for a shorter
time. Another tip is
to express while nursing as our body is able to adjust
to the demand. Let's
say, you express while you're nursing at
11.00pm every
night, your body
will think that is how much your baby needs at night,
therefore increases
its production of milk to meet the demand (Min)
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Also check out
http://www.breastfeeding.com/helpme/helpme_images_expression.html
The method which was shared with me is to form a C with your thumb and
forefinger.
Place your hand just above the ariola and gently glide your hand down.
Something like the right hand in the middle picture at the bottom (the grey
one). Yup, just one hand. It'll help to stimulate your breast (remember
the hanky? :o)) before you start expressing whether with hand or pump.
(Min)
Some hilarious observation I made abt this whole pumping life: (Sze Sze)
1) You have stained your
book, your desk, your radio, your keyboard, your company's annual report
before. Lilian stained her Bible too!
2) And if you did any of the
above, you have clumsily run out of the pumping sanctuary before ---
frantically looking for a wet towel to clean up the mess only to discover
that you have created quite an impression art with the sprayed milk already
dried up on the surface.
3) If you pump in the
office, you have battled the initial shyness of taking the X no. of bottles
of EBM in your hands, striding past at least a dozen of male colleagues
while on your way to the pantry.
4) Your EBM is labelled with
your big name and provide a great source of amusement amongst the colleague
especially on a gloomy Monday.
5) Your EBM have helped to
strike a convenient conversation with the tea lady, the CEO and even the
not-so-intelligent colleagues around you.
6) Because you could see
your milk qty, with each subsequent pump you mentally compare your milk qty
and take great concern over the level of milk output for the day/week. In
fact you are only "kiasu" when it comes to this matter.
7) You save every drop of
milk you could possibly get your hands on, carefully knocking down every
drop of milk from the pump or breast (if you hand express) into the bottle
ensuring not a single drop of antibody/nutrient in the EBM is left
uncollected.
8) You are already a multi-tasker
when you are both a woman and a mum. But you are even more of a multi-tasker
as you pump, boil the water, catch the ASTRO's world's birthday, pick up
your bawling baby, talking to a friend from Holland, reading and doing
manicure altogether, all while the other free hand's busy collecting those
sprayed milk from the other boob.
9) You have the latest
gadget for pumping, from breastshell, canggih-manggih pump, leopard print
nursing mom (LOL), steriliser, cooler box and still know exactly what you
ought to buy to make pumping even easier if you have the money.
10) On weekends, you can be
seen rushing to the supermarket aisle to pick up some rarely used nursing
tea, herbs and whatever secret remedy you could lay your hands on to
increase milk qty.
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