Mama's milk

tvillalobos — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:11:03 GMT

As a mother who pumped for both of her children, I can tell you that you _can't_ always wait until a set break time. There are many times when your milk is over producing, that you need to pump earlier than expected/planned for. I don't get a regular pattern of feeding until my children are at least 2-4 months old. That means I don't know when they're going to need to eat, which means how can you plan anything. Most books and websites recommend you nurse every 2-3 hours...how then can you go all day without pumping? That means you have to pump every _2-3_ hours, too!

Upon going back to work with my first child, I was told I could use the nurse's bathroom to pump. Let's clear some things up.... if sick children come into a close quartered room and use the bathroom there because they've been caught smearing stuff on the walls of the regular bathroom then it is NOT the appropriate place to express milk that you are going to feed a child! Pumping has nothing to do with a medical issue. It is a food issue. How about I close off the faculty room for 15 minutes two to three times a day to feed my child! That is more sanitary....well not by much. ;)

The fact that the woman had to hide in the bathroom just shows how ill prepared companies are and how disrespectful they are to natural parenting. How can we decrease the amount of illnesses and encourage people to go back to the natural way of feeding our children when companies think feeding your child is like going to the bathroom.

I am a teacher and I have before class, my lunch, and my prep to pump. I have to have three sets of pump pieces in a ziplock bag ready to go every day. I have my pump ready with paper towels already. I have a 'dirty' bag ready every morning. From start to finish it takes me 7-10 minutes to pump. That's after I close the blinds to my room, check the curtain by my classroom door twice, check that the door is locked twice, and place a post it on the key hole so a substitute custodian thinks twice before unlocking my door (yes happened once!). Oh, don't forget sanitizing my desk and hands since I don't have a sink. Now imagine all that stress... then 'relaxxxxx' so that my milk lets down quickly because I have to get my next class.

Yes, I do this willingly. It is so important to me that my son gets the same nourishment that I gave my daughter for 10 months (pumped for her 4th to 14th month). My children have gotten sick (daycare and brought home from me) but their illnesses last half as long and are half as strong as most children's. If I am sick first, my son barely gets sick. I've already done the fighting for him with my antibodies. Who needs medicine! Not to mention that breastmilk helps fight asthma, obesidy, diabetes, etc. (all things in my family). How many people have to switch formula 5 times before going for the most expensive medical kind or soy? Not me. I cut out dairy for a few months for my lactose intolerant daughter and citrus for my reflux prone son. Neither one had any symptoms, stomach/stool problems after I did this. When your child is sleeping soundly with a full belly, who cares about the comments at work.

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Mama's milk