Should I Pump If I’m a Stay-At-Home Mom? 5 Ways Breastmilk Storage Can Benefit You as a Stay-at-Home Mom
I want to talk about five reasons why you should be storing your breast milk even if you don’t have a job to go to or a plan to be away from your baby for any certain amount of hours every week.
Regularly storing breastmilk can be a real game-changer for stay-at-home moms and today we are going to uncover why.
And just to set the record straight, none of these five reasons are “to let dad or another care taker feed or bond with the baby” or “to keep your supply up” because #1 your baby can keep up your supply all on his or her own and unless you have a known supply issue, pumping for supply only is unnecessary and #2 there are a number of ways that other people who love and care for your baby can bond. You don’t have to pass off feedings just for the purpose of allowing someone else to bond. If you enjoy pumping for those reasons and that’s a choice you make for yourself, go you, girl. Do your thing but I don’t want you to feel like you have to. So if those two reasons don’t do it for you, then you might want to hear what else might light you up or motivate you to store that liquid gold.
Reason 1: Facilitating Mom's Much-Needed Break
The Gift of ‘Me Time'
Let’s be honest, as much as we love our little ones, we also need some time for ourselves, time to reconnect with our partners, friends, or even other children without a baby attached to our boob. Trust me, I know that feeding a newborn means you’re on call 24 hours and it’s important that you rest and recover with baby during that time. But after you’ve latched for every single feeding for weeks, months, or even a full year with your baby, it might be time to enjoy some moments, hours, or even a couple of days – depending on the age of your babe – away from them.
If you start storing a little bit of milk every day, even if it’s just two ounces a day, by the end of the week, you’ll have enough stored for a dinner date with your hubby, a lunch with the girls, AND a little one-on-one time with your older kiddo if you have one. Especially if you time your get-away right after a feeding. For example, Let’s say you only want to be away for one feeding and your baby is taking 4 oz per feeding. You could feed your baby at lets just say 5 pm and then leave the house right after the feeding to go on a dinner and movie date with you hubby. 3 hours later, baby is hungry again and someone else gives your baby that 4 oz bag you prepared and they won’t be hungry again for another 3 hours, assuming your baby is feeding every 3 hours still if they are on the younger side. That four oz that you stored got you 6 hours of “freedom” with your partner when you needed it.
And let’s say your girlfriends invited you to a last minute brunch today and you really want to go catch up. If you already have a bag in the freezer, you won’t have to worry about fitting in a pump sesh and getting enough out in between the next feedings before you head out. You’ll already have it ready to go and you won’t have to worry about pumping to prepare for a quick, impromptu brunch happening right at a typical feeding time…. honestly… you might need a break like this at any time.
You could just be feeling really touched out, really overwhelmed, or feeling like you need to just take a break to reset your mind and take care of yourself for a little bit. Whether that means getting out of the house for a massage and a pedicure or just locking yourself away in your room for a few hours, you have that bag of milk in the freezer ready to go on days that you just need a break.
Reason 2: Preparing for Unplanned Emergencies
Navigating Life's Unpredictability
Life is unpredictable and having a stash of stored breastmilk can be a lifesaver during unexpected situations like a sudden family emergency, unforeseen medical situations, or even a hospital stay for you, the mama. Being separated from your baby can be stressful but knowing that they have a supply of your breastmilk can offer some comfort in a tough situation.
There might be a tragedy in your extended family and you choose to fly home for a couple of days and don’t think it’s a good time to take baby with you this is a situation where having many bags stored up to get baby through more than just a feeding or two can be such an incredible relief. Now, let me tell you, this hits home for me on a deep level because I was unfortunate enough to be separated from my nursing babies ALL THREE TIMES. Ridiculous, I know. So let’s talk about that for a sec.
When I had my first son, Logan, he was 11 months old when Dean and I decided to go on our first getaway without him. We were leaving him with my mom while we traveled to Vegas for a weekend. Well, unfortunately, we had to stay in Vegas one extra night because I had emergency surgery in Vegas after a kidney stone flare up where I discovered that I had a monster kidney stone that needed to be surgically removed. Staying one extra night away was hard but I knew I had enough milk stored up to hold him over until I came home. With my second son, Elliot, I had to have my gall bladder removed when he was about 5 months old. I was only away from him for two nights total but I had bags stored in the freezer for while I was away from him AND I had bags stored up to make some “half and half” bottles after having surgery. A suggestion I got from my Anesthesia provider in the hospital during my pre-op appointment was to pump my milk after having surgery and although I don’t have to dump it and it is safe to give to baby, it might be better to mix this milk that has small amounts of leftover anesthesia drugs in it with previously pumped milk to make the anesthesia that was already in miniscule amounts, even more diluted. So that was really helpful at that time.
Then, it got a whole lot worse when I had my daughter.
When SHE was five months old, I had another kidney stone flare up. But this time I didn’t need emergency surgery, I had a scheduled lithtoripsy to break up the stone and we were able to plan ahead for it. What we DIDN”T plan ahead for was the fact that I would then develop a nasty infection after surgery and be admitted to the hospital for sepsis for a week and then sent home with a midline catheter in my arm to continue receiving IV antibiotics for another two weeks afterwards. It was SO brutal. First, being away for a week and also having to give milk that I knew had antibiotics in it was really hard for me. So we did a combination of things. I had stored milk already and that’s what my husband started with when it all went down. Then, as I pumped in the hospital day and night while I was away, he mixed old milk with new milk to make sure my baby was getting milk where the antibiotic was as diluted as possible and she was getting less antibiotic in each bottle than she would if he was giving milk straight from the tap. Then, when I came home on antibiotics, I did a combination of feeding at the breast and offering old milk without antibiotics in it in bottles. So that again, she was getting less milk with antibiotics as possible. It was so hard but having that stored milk from when she was a brand new little newborn was so helpful. I knew that storing milk even early on without any immediate use for it was so important for instances just like this that we certainly didn’t plan on.
Reason 3: Easing the Weaning Process
Making the Transition Smoother
Deciding to wean can be a complex emotional journey for both mom and baby. And when that time comes, having a stash of your own milk can make that transition a little smoother. Whenever you choose to wean, it might take some convincing that what's in the bottle or cup is worth their time when they've been used to having mama's milk their whole life so far. Having some pumped milk saved up in advance allows you to put breastmilk in a bottle or cup to make the transition from the breast a little easier.
You can start by giving straight breastmilk in a bottle or a cup to get them used to drinking out of that container instead of the breast but ease them in by not transitioning to an alternative at the same time. From there you can mix breastmilk with their formula or other cow’s milk or milk alternative if you’re weaning a toddler.r This allows them to still get the benefits of breastmilk for a little extra time even after you’ve weaned AND it gives you the opportunity to give them less and less breast milk over time to convert them solely to a breastmilk alternative when you’re ready without making the process an abrupt, cold-turkey process.
I know from experience that when you’re done, you’re done. Once I had checkout mentally from continuing to breastfeed, there was NO WAY that you would catch me pumping to keep providing breastmilk after the weaning process. So for me, it was nice to still have some left over in the freezer during the weaning process.
Reason 4: DIY Breastmilk Products
Getting Creative with Your Liquid Gold
You can use your pumped breastmilk for DIY breastmilk products like breastmilk soap or lotion. You can even send breastmilk to someone who actually creates jewelry from your breastmilk. It’s actually really cool and turns out so beautifully as a special little keepsake to treasure as you remember this time in your life. I personally use breastmilk soap for my babies all the time. Whenever I have expired breastmilk or breastmilk that I’ve left out too long or that my baby wasn’t able to finish from her bottle, I just make soap out of it instead of dumping it down the sink. It’s been great on my babies that have had sensitive skin or eczema but it’s actually beneficial for any baby. So I highly recommend trying it. And it’s sooo easy to do too.
Reason 5: Making the Most of Your Natural Supply
Using Every Last Drop
You don’t always have to go out of your way to pump between feedings or dread that end of the day or early morning pumping session to store your milk. Of course, adding in pumping sessions is always an option but it’s not always necessary. Here’s why. Most of us will have a letdown on BOTH sides when baby nurses. And anything that comes out of the opposite side that baby’s nursing on will be wasted into your bra or a breast pad.
So instead of letting that milk go to waste, you can catch your letdown with something called the haakaa pump. It’s not a traditional kind of pump and it really doesn’t “pump” at all. It just suctions to your breast and allows milk to flow or drip into the base of it until it’s full or until you take it off after the letdown or when baby is done nursing on the other side. Sometimes haakaa sessions get just a small amount that you can collect throughout the day at every feeding and those small amounts will add up throughout the day OR other times the haakaa will collect 2 or even 4 ounces per feeding. I LOVE the haakaa for so many reasons but one thing I love about it is that I can use it and then STILL nurse my baby on that side after the haakaa collects the letdown. It doesn’t pump the breast dry and it doesn’t lead to oversupply when used at every feeding. So it’s a great, low-effort way to store breastmilk without adding pumping sessions, getting out a pump and worrying about all the parts, or worrying about creating an oversupply due to frequent pumping. So that’s one way to make the most out of your natural supply.
But other ways that may or may not apply to you are to catch your letdown before re-latching baby if you have an oversupply. That’s not going to apply to everyone but if you DO have an oversupply that has lead to a gassy, uncomfortable, reflux-y or colicky baby, you can actually latch your baby to bring down a letdown, unlatch your baby to catch the forceful spray of milk that can lead to baby swallowing air and having a gas problem, and then re-latching baby after you’ve caught that letdown in the haakaa to store for later. Another way you can store the milk that is already there is if you baby starts to sleep through the night and you wake up feeling uncomfortable or like you need to relieve your breasts a little bit to get you to the next feeding. You can manually express or use the haakaa to collect some excess milk to give you some relief of overnight engorgement and contribute to your stockpile.
Conclusion
And there you have it- five reasons to store your breastmilk even if you aren’t pumping to go back to work. Storing breastmilk can really be a great decision for all moms, including stay-at-home moms. But remember, the most important thing is to have enough milk to feed your baby. It’s not about pumping as much as humanly possible. It’s not about filling bags and stuffing the freezer or measuring up to moms in mommy groups that have hundreds of ounces stored up. Do what you can, when you can and try to accomplish breastfeeding and pumping for your baby in the most stress-free ways possible.
