You have just resumed work after maternity leave, and that email comes that ‘requests’ you to attend a 3-day conference at a different city or country. Work demands, emergencies and other commitments may mean that you may have to travel and leave your baby for a few days. How do you ensure that you maintain a constant milk supply even when you have to be away from your baby for more than 24 hours?
There are a few factors to consider when you need to be away from your baby. This will ensure that you are comfortable leaving your baby for those few days.
1. Plan ahead
- Who will take care of your baby whilst you are away including the nights?
- Ensure that your baby is comfortable with an alternative way of feeding (bottle or cup/spoon).
- Find out about your venue, accommodations, timings, etc.
- Ensure you have a good breast pump or you are comfortable hand expressing.
- Stock-pile milk that your baby will take whilst you are away. Ensure that you have already determined how much your baby takes during each feed. Remember that since you will be away, your baby may need to be fed every 3 hours.
*( For example if your baby takes 100ml of milk per feed you will need 100ml x 8 feeds = 800ml in a 24 hour period. You will need to multiply that by the number of days that you are away)*
2. Milk handling options
- Remember that to maintain a good milk supply, you will need to stimulate production by emptying your breast often. If you do not express you may decrease supply and you may also suffer from engorgement and/or mastitis. Pump on the same schedule you have been feeding and pumping. If that combination has been 8 times per day, then you will need to do that while you are gone, as best as you can. If you cannot maintain that schedule then your supply may decrease a bit while you are gone. You will then need to get back into your schedule once back home.
- You can pump and dump especially if you have no facility for refrigerating or freezing the milk.
- If you are going to go back home within 2 days then you could store in a fridge and carry home the next day in a cooler bag/box.
- In some cities, you may find some milk banks so you could consider pumping and donating the expressed milk to these milk banks.
