Pumping Mom

So here's a story of a pumping mom..

The ibu perah pumping mom knows breast milk has all the nutrients a baby needs. Since she was 5 months pregnant she's been experiencing colostrum leakage. She's been always desiring to breastfeed the baby exclusively once the little one arrives. Four months later she gave birth to a wonderful tough baby. She was so grateful to be able to nurse her baby an hour after delivery. Though at first breastfeeding became hard, both she and the baby soon found it enjoyable and much convenient.

Now it's the time for her to be back working after two full exciting months together with the little one. She has to find a way so the baby can still have the benefits of breast milk while she's at work. The only thing to do is to supply enough milk by pumping regularly, and this also includes pumping at work. So far it works and here's how she does it.

..From the one day rehearsal she did before getting back to work, basically she needs to supply for 5 feedings everyday. So pumping can be done 4 to 5 times a day. The first one is in the morning around 10 am. Where in the office she got space to do the business? Luckily the surau is available. Since there's a fixed glass along the side wall at 1.6m high above the floor, she has to sit very closely to the wall to avoid somebody from being able to watch. The amount of milk she'd get at this time is around 8.5 to 9.5 oz. So this session is enough to stock for 2 feedings. The second session is around 2 pm which most of the time she gets around 4 to 5 oz which is more than enough for a feeding. The third session would be at night after the little one sleeps for the night. If she's lucky she'd get around 4 oz. Around 3 am another session would be enough to supply for one feeding.

..So the same thing goes everyday. But when a meeting is held during the first half of a day, pumping session becomes untidy. Only around 3 pm she'd pump and she'd get more than 11 oz but to bear with the engorged breasts are really not fun. But that's even better because there was one day she had to be at the site the whole day so she had to deal with the painful engorgement and to catch up supplying for the next day once she got home.

For her, weekend is a good time to stock supply though the amount she gets wouldn't be as much as when she is away from the baby. So far people at the office don't have idea what she does every 10 am at the surau with this black big handbag. One of the colleagues said "awalnya zohor?" But she just smiled. Let them find out rather than informing them. Or else people would be talking or teasing about it. So since it's written here, this is an open secret. After all people should understand a pumping mom doesn't do more than a favour to feed her baby. So that's a story about her, ummu Sheraz.