Pumping- It's Not A Break!
Pumping – It’s not a break!
By DAPM Lactation Working Group
It has been estimated that lactating women spend on average 1800 hours a year breastfeeding/pumping. That does not even include all the time it can take to:
- Run to locker or workspace to grab pumping gear
- Hustle to lactation room
- Attach pumps and start session (on average around 20 minutes)
- Pour milk (don’t spill!) into a container and find a fridge somewhere
- Clean parts
- Put pumping gear away
- Hydrate and eat because your milk supply demands it
Feeling overwhelmed and tired just reading this list? Lactation is a full time job! Squeezing in time to pump while juggling a busy OR schedule often requires elite time-management skills. In recognition of this, we would like to highlight the pumping experiences of some women in our department.
Passionate about this topic? Please send your thoughts to the wellness committee. Your voice is valuable to us (regardless of whether you breastfed/pumped) and we welcome hearing your experience on how we can make life easier for all working moms.
"Pouring milk in the call from at MLK but I’ve done this in really odd and weird places in the hospital." -Beti Asnake, MD
"Proud to have pumped for 3 babies!" -Theo Wingert, MD
"Multitasking at its finest." -Mansi Sheth, MD
"This is me wearing my Willows (wearable pumps). My Dolly Parton ways." -Diana Hekmat, MD
"A hard day’s work." -Shradha Khadge, MD
"Returning to work was challenging when Christopher Buckley refused to take a bottle. He gradually acquiesced with efforts to replicate the natural feeding experience." -Christine Nguyen-Buckley, MD