Oh, the places I've pumped!

I have this week off from school, and my daughter will be turning 1 shortly, so I'm taking the opportunity to wean myself off the pump and get her transitioned to cow's milk during the day.  I've been breastfeeding and pumping for close to a year, but I'm now finally almost done.  (For this baby, and with the pumping, anyway...I'm planning to continue nursing in the evening for as long as my supply holds up).

Given the momentousness of this occasion (I get my lunch breaks back!  I can wear dresses that don't pull down in the front!  Regular bras!), I wanted to take the opportunity to reflect a bit on how pumping at work has gone.

Over the last 3 months I've rotated through neurology, psychiatry, and outpatient medicine at Stanford hospital.  For most of the time, I've ended up using my trusty Medela manual pump.  Its size, ease of cleaning, quietness, and speed has endeared me to it over my electric pump and even over the hospital-grade pumps available in the maternity ward of the hospital.

I've pumped:
-in the maternity ward lactation room (it has 3 chairs for the entire hospital campus, so there's often a line, but it has some perks, namely the conversations through the curtains with other moms, and that you can check out the newborn nursery on your way in for an oxytocin boost)!
-in bathrooms all over the place.  Gross, but sometimes convenient.
-in my car
-in my team room (with a cover), so that I wouldn't miss a call back from a patient's primary care doctor
-during class
-in empty clinic rooms (which are the best!  There's a computer for internet browsing, magazines to page through, and even a sink)
-during morning report with the neurology department (with a cover, sitting in the back and trying hard to look nonchalant)

totally worth it

I've had to be flexible, to say the least.  The fact is that as a medical student, you have little to no control over your schedule, so although there is guaranteed to be time, in an absolute sense, to pump during the day, that time is unlikely to be exactly according to your pumping schedule.  So you make do!

But the nice thing about being a medical student is that you're surrounded by doctors, who are comfortable with bodily processes and most of whom have at least a passing familiarity with the health benefits of breast milk.

I can't imagine that I would be comfortable pumping during a meeting at any other job...but then, at any other job, I would probably have enough control over my schedule to take 15 minutes to pump when I needed to!

Have you ever pumped in front of colleagues?

Unbuttoned

Breastfeeding and pumping add a whole new danger to life for the absent-minded.

Just a few days ago, I had a 10-minute break between sessions of the medical school course I was helping to teach, so I zipped down the hall to the pumping room, pumped one bottle, and then ran back out to stash the bottle in a freezer before I went back to class.

I was halfway down the hallway before I realized that I had carefully buttoned the top button of my white collared shirt...while leaving the other buttons completely undone, the two sides of the shirt flapping open.  !@%#$*!  I ran back into the room, buttoned up, and then went back out again.

The fact is, when you breastfeed exclusively, you spend a LOT of time, um, hanging out.  For me, the result is that I can now be completely uncovered, and not notice at all.  I can't tell you how many times I've nearly walked into a meeting or class in an inappropriate state of undress.

If this sounds sexy, trust me, it's not.  For one thing, nursing bras--at least the kind you can buy at Target--are not exactly titillating attire.  For another, my breasts have become so functional, in my mind, that the idea that anyone would get turned-on by any amount of accidental exposure seems ridiculous.  No, my episodes of near-flashing of strangers are about as sexy as a forgetful old man leaving his zipper undone.

A few times, I've gotten home and gone to the bathroom, only to discover that a button or two has been open for hours, or that the nursing flap on my bra is undone, leaving an unsightly fabric bulge under my shirt.  And I think...if only someone had told me!  Please.  A discreet wave in the general area of your chest, with some raised eyebrows, will be plenty to clue me in.   Gentlemen and gentle ladies, I thank you in advance!

Hey mom, button your shirt!

An ode to the hand pump

Breastfeeding is a wonderful part of being a new mother.  Unfortunately, breastfeeding usually necessitates pumping, which is not so wonderful.

[For those uninitiated:  you have to pump for 3 reasons.  1) To store milk that can be used the next time you want to leave your baby with someone who isn't lactating, 2) to keep up your supply; breastfeeding is like Econ 101, all about supply and demand, so if you don't empty your breasts as often, they will start making less, and 3) because your breasts will get so full of milk after 3 or 4 hours that they become quite uncomfortable.  Not to mention leaky!]

The amount of equipment that it seems necessary to acquire before you pump for the first time is unbelievable, and I found it quite intimidating.  There's the breast pump itself, which can run to hundreds of dollars for a good electric model.  Then you need something to pump the milk into--a bottle--which may or may not be the same as the container you store the milk in, which, believe it or not, may not be the same as the bottle you use to serve the milk to the baby.  And you really would not believe the number of different kinds of bottles that are out there.  Plastic, glass, standard cap, wide-mouthed, slow flow, medium flow, upturned nipple, broad-based nipple...it goes on and on.

So, I got all that stuff.  And for the first 4 or 5 months, I used my electric pump.  But for the last month or so, I've been able to do most of my pumping at home, and since I wasn't so pressed for time, I started to use this little manual pump that I was given for free at the hospital.