Night nursing is a big part of the breastfeeding relationship in the first year. Those overnight sessions help to maintain supply and offer our babies comfort when they are going through growth spurts and teething pain. But for working moms they are especially important to help maintain a good breastfeeding relationship and your supply. They can also be especially difficult.
If a mom is home with their baby all day, they have the opportunity to nurse on demand. This means whenever their baby is hungry, they nurse. A working mom has to schedule their pump sessions every 2 – 3 hours. Its very difficult for working moms to pump like a baby would nurse. Also babies are much more efficient than pumps at draining a breast so they could nurse for 5 minutes and ingest what it could take a working mom 20 – 30 minutes to pump.
Working moms are told over and over, the golden rule of leaving milk is 1 – 1.5oz per hour you are away. This number is determined based on the idea that in 24 hours your baby will take about 24oz of milk. A mom nursing on demand at home has the option of offering their baby to nurse more frequently in the day, therefore their baby may take much of the 24oz they need in the daytime hours and sleep better at night. For working moms however, it is not feasible to pump 24oz in an 8 hour shift. In fact in a typical 9 hour separation a mom would only expect to pump about 8 – 12oz. That is 100% normal. This is why it is so important to nurse on demand at home as much as you can.
A baby who drinks 8 – 12oz when mom is at work needs to nurse for the additional 12oz, which means ideally your baby should be getting at least 4 additional nursing sessions a day. If you figure mom nurses right before work, right after work, and before bed that’s 3, so therefore it is very understandable your baby will wake at night to nurse too. We also have to remember transfer rate varies from baby to baby and also the amount of milk baby takes will vary from nursing session to nursing session. This is why, for working moms especially, limiting nursing overnight can impact not only supply but their overall nursing relationship.
If baby is sleeping for 12 hours overnight or not having any milk overnight, it means in those other 12 hours of the day they need to be drinking about 24oz of milk. If mom is only nursing 2 times a day and then at work that means your baby would be drinking 16 – 20oz of milk while you are gone. For most women pumping that much milk in a normal work day is not possible. Biologically it's not what our bodies were made to do. More stimulation = more milk. In this scenario mom is only having 2 nursing sessions and 3 pumping sessions a day. Babies in the first 9 months of life typically nurse at least 8 times a day. The end result is ultimately mom not producing enough milk at work for their baby and then ends up pumping more on the nights or weekends or supplementing.
So what is the best solution for a sleep deprived mom?
First off knowing that this too shall pass. It helps to have realistic goals. Anticipate nursing every 3 – 4 hours overnight in the first year. Remind yourself this night nursing is important to the nursing relationship. It's exhausting, but normal. If you have a baby that wakes every 1 – 2 hours, try sending your partner in to offer comfort. If you cosleep try moving your baby to a crib in their own room. If you don’t cosleep, consider it. Another trick is to try and tank your baby up before bed. If you get home at 5 and your baby goes to bed at 7, offer lots of nursing sessions in those few hours. That cluster nursing not only helps your baby fill up, it also helps to stimulate your supply. The big key however is finding a sleep situation that helps everyone get the best nights sleep possible.
