Boobs at Work

Practical breastfeeding advice for real working mamas

When I started back to work, just six short weeks after baby, I looked around forever for the right tips and tricks on how to mechanically, discreetly and confidently confront workplace issues around breastfeeding. There’s a lot out there on the mechanics and physiology of breastfeeding, the whole supply and demand thing. There are fewer things out there about workplace rights and nothing about etiquette or a quick how-to for the first time moms.

I nearly can’t believe I’m writing about this publicly — I’m a pretty private person and a modest one — but I’m also pretty practical. Bodies are bodies, boobs are boobs and every other person you meet has them. There’s a harsh reality of your physical needs that have to be taken care of on the job, if you are a mom who chooses to breastfeed.

Normalizing these issues by just not being too embarrassed to talk about them openly, is one small thing I can do to help make the lives of modern parents — not just moms, dads care about having healthy breastfed babies too — a little easier.

So if you are a first time mom going back to work and carrying your ugly black pump bag, here are my top tips and how-tos.

1. It’s not as noisy as you think. I’ve pumped on calls and it’s been fine. Friends have recommended tossing a jacket or cardigan over it if you are worried.

2. Pump in the bathroom stall that has the diaper changer, then you can use it like a counter.

3. Plastic baggies save your life. You can put your equipment in there and not worry if it’s a little drippy. Extra breastmilk baggies are good for when you accidentally forget the screw top to the bottle/container you are pumping into, or just for excess overflow.

4. Keep a bunch of paper towels handy and a spare burp cloth in the bag for spills and drips. Clorox wipes are also good to get rid of any stickiness.

5. Flip your nursing bra down and IN not down and OUT — I’ve found it is much easier with the underwire or harder outer shell bras that tend to want to close back up on you.

6. Make sure you get the flanges (funnel things) right up next to your skin. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started to pump and wondered why I was getting no suction. It’s always because it’s under the bustier but caught on the bra. Caused more than one leaky issue before.

7. Carry a manual hand pump in case your batteries die and you can’t be at an outlet. This is especially important for work travel - if you check your pump bag, you don’t want a lost bag sending you into a panic.

8. Battery packs don’t have the same power as an outlet. A car adapter will help when you don’t want to ask for a private place to pump, for example when you are off-site at a client location. Use your coverup and sit in the front seat. Park your car away from other cars. No one will notice and even if they do, you’ll be covered.

9. About that ugly black nylon bag that all pumps come with - get rid of it if it bugs you. It made me feel like I was wearing my breastfeeding out in the open - once you know what one of those bags looks like, it’s pretty obvious. Instead I supersized my normal work bag and found that the cooler that came with the pump was sized to fit on top of where the pump is installed in the bag. That meant an extra cooler could be used as a compartment for the breastpump, and it just un-velcroed out of my bag. Now I keep it all in a much cuter and more professional looking bag.