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A Breastfeeding Guide for Working Mothers By Kathleen Karue Breast milk alone is the best feed for babies below six months of age. It is recommended that a baby is breastfed up to 2 years of age. This is usually achievable if only the mother and the health care worker communicate during the visits to the wellness clinic, and work out ways to meet this goal. Mothers will usually resume back to work after three months of maternity leave, this usually poses a challenge to most mothers as she will now have to balance between work and breastfeeding her baby exclusively. From the wellness clinic, mothers are usually advised to work out strategies on how to keep their babies on their breast milk even after they report back to work. For the mothers who have refrigerators, they can have a milk bank, where the expressed milk is properly labeled and stored in terms of “last in- last out” basis.This is usually very helpful especially because when the mother resumes work, there are tendencies of work related stress and limited chances of frequent feeding by the mother; this leading to decrease in the milk production. For our mothers who don’t have the refrigerators, then they are advised to do an early morning expressing and stored properly; (upright position) in water pots. Technology has made it easier during expressing of breast milk by use of breast pumps. Mothers are advised on how to use the available usable types of breast pumps, how to clean and disinfect, and storage of the same. Amounts of expressed milk needed to be classified as satisfactory for both classes of mothers depends on the mothers work schedule. This means that if the mothers schedule entails a 12 hour shift, then she will have to express more milk, than the mother who does a half day shift, since she will have to be away from the baby longer. Milk is usually stored in amounts almost or slightly above what the baby feeds at any particular feed. This is to prevent occasions where milk is thawed, defrosted, or even warmed up and is not completed and there’s the temptation of storing it again if it’s left over after a feed. During the visits to the wellness clinic, the mothers are advised to discuss any challenges they pass through during their journey through exclusive breastfeeding and even up to 2years after, with the health provider in order to reduce the chances of failure to accomplish exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and continuity up to 2 years of age. Kathleen Karue is the |
