Flexible Work and Breastfeeding: Choices for Nursing Moms

Your maternity leave is coming to an end. That’s tough enough. But what about your longing intent to give your baby only (or mostly) your breast milk? A flexible work schedule can help you successfully meet this need. Here’s my view on your options.

Telecommuting

This is my first pick of flexible work arrangements for nursing moms.

In the ideal situation, your infant’s caregiver would be on the premises while you work in a separate part of the home. Then you would be nearby to nurse your infant as needed.

If your infant’s day care is outside your home, and some distance away from your home office, telecommuting allows you the advantages of pumping or otherwise expressing your breast milk:

• at the right times,
• in a sanitary environment,
• in a relaxed setting,
• with privacy.

What a refreshing difference over sitting in an abandoned office trying to get a good let-down reflex going! (But at least federal law has ruled out the bathroom stall as a nursing station, besides requiring reasonable breaks to pump milk.)

Since you will likely be working from home only part of the workweek, you can make arrangements to pump at the employer office, with the backing of the relatively new federal law, referenced above.

Part-time or Job Sharing

Either of these get second place. With a reduced workweek or reduced workday, your nursing schedule can more closely conform to what it would otherwise be if you were not away from your home and baby.

Compressed Workweek

This gets last place for the mom who is nursing her baby. If you are away from your baby for 10+ hours a day, and your job responsibilities and work setting don’t allow for on-time pumping, you are setting yourself up for engorgement and breast milk leakage. Look to the other flexible work arrangements for a solution.

If you don’t have much of a choice about the long days upon returning to your job, a better nursing course of action would be to mimic a night-time only nursing schedule a couple of weeks before returning to work. That way your milk production will adjust accordingly and prevent daytime discomfort.

Otherwise, it may be time to propose your preferred work schedule to your boss.