Breastfeeding

How old was your baby when you went back to work?

A month.

How did you handle that? What, you know, how did you arrange it? What, what did you do?

Ah, it was pretty easy and pretty difficult, and I explained the two things. It was pretty easy because I'd only work five hours a week, that is to say, one Saturday morning, and one Tuesday evening, which wasn't much. So he was on his own for two hours at the very beginning, and, so in that sense it wasn't that difficult because it wasn't extensive periods of time for the two of them doing something he wasn't maybe feeling pretty sure about. And on the other hand, because for me it was very difficult to leave them, I had two hour classes and every time I had a class I phoned three, four times to see if they were doing okay. 'Cause it's a very difficult thing to do, and also because my Mum was here at the time, so when I said in my classes maybe, maybe sooner than a month my Mum was here supporting [husband]. And, so, I think my Mum has played his Mum's role as well, and, and she was a great help for him, and the four of them because they were, the four of them [includes her father] taking care of Luca while I was working giving the security of doing it on his own later when he had to do it on his own, and, and I think that's the way I managed and it was difficult because any time you have to leave your baby, even if it is with his Dad, my God, its like you're just tearing your heart apart, it's not that you don't trust your, your husband or your partner, it's that detaching from them is a difficult job to do. And I don't know who's more dependent, if the baby or you, I still don't know, because I think I'm very, let's say baby dependent [laughs] yes, it's very difficult to leave them but I was confident he was able to do it and it was only two hours.

So did you leave expressed breastmilk?

Yes I did.

How did you express the milk and when?

At the beginning it was very, it was pretty fresh milk, an hour before going to work I expressed.

By hand or by pump?

By pump.

Electric or hand pump?

Manual.

Hand pump?

Hand pump. The first time I did it was quite, quite difficult, you have to, get to know how to manage your pump, but afterwards it was easy and you have to wait for the moment in which your breast is kind of fullish so, you can, you can get the milk easily. But after then I started working more nights so I had to do it in advance, and I barely ever freeze the milk, I know it's possible to do it and I know it's ok but I preferred to do, give the fresh milk, so I leave three or four bottles, I knew they were more than what he needed, for the time he had to be on his own, well I mean without me but, but it was mainly fresh milk.

And how did he feed that to the baby when you were gone?

He was fed with the bottle.

Through a bottle?

Through a bottle yeah.

So he didn't have any trouble taking the bottle?

No and I guess because I had to use the nipple shields, so he was used to the rubber and so, he didn't have a problem, my Mum was actually very surprised yeah, he ha

Yes I went off to work full-time.

How did you manage that?

With difficulty, in fact when I first went out, back to work after having him I went back on shift, an early shift started at half past five in the morning, a late shift finished at ten past ten to midnight, in the evening, and that was hard work, that was really hard work. 

Did you set up a routine of any sort?

To a certain extent I pumped, because I work in a factory, every two hours is a forced break if you like, the bell rings and we all go out to break and so every break I was pumping. And, I was pumping at home as well, there are several things that I wish I'd known when I started and I found doing the same when I went back to work with my daughter much easier because I knew these things, I knew to express in that first morning feed so you feed on one side, you express on the other at once.

Because?

Because each one stimulates the milk production in the other and he had much, much more and I wish I'd done that with my son but I didn't, and I think I would've struggled a lot less. I wish I'd have bought my expensive breast pump earlier, I bought it about half way through my son's feeding during the day when I was back at work.

What advantage does your expensive breast pump have over an inexpensive one?

It's a double.

So?

So again you're stimulating both, each side is stimulating the other, my cheap electric one, is great, it works, but it's one, and it's just one side.

So it's more time-consuming?

It's more time-consuming and I was finding it very hard to stimulate let-down, very, very hard to get let-down, in fact I almost always wasn't and I was just getting dribbles all the time and not adding up to what he needed, and as soon as I phoned La Leche League and they said, “I think you need an expensive double breast pump” and I got it, and bingo, let-down.

How did you know?

Because the quantity of milk tripled [laughs] quite simply.

Could you feel the let-down happening?

No I couldn't.

Could you visually see the increase in milk flow?

Yes, yes I could definitely see that. But I didn't feel it, I did the second time around as I say with my daughter then it was, in, in some ways I think I was more aware with her so I was looking out for can I feel let down coming, and so I could.

And what did it feel like?

Tingly, like that tingling down the back of your spine when you, someone you love is giving you a massage.

A frisson?

Yeah, yeah rather nice [laughs].

And a tightening in the chest?

No, no, just a tingling that, I knew what was going on.

So, so I just want to get this, this going back to work routine straight, you fed in the morning on one side, pumped on the other, every two hours at work during the day…