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I don't have any stories for Greenwood, but I worked for a Denny's in Greenville and was flat out told by my manager that I could not pump anywhere where there was an outlet and if I really wanted to do it I could sit in the bathroom on my lunch break, but I couldn't store it anywhere.  This on top of them wanting me to work 8-10 hour shifts and my son was only 10 weeks old at the time.  I told her thanks but no thanks.  That my son meant more to me than a crappy job.

Hello Everyone,
A big hot button topic right now in the breastfeeding world is Breastfeeding in the Workplace. I am looking for stories about issues you have faced in Greenwood with returning to work and maintaining lactation. Was your employer supportive? If so, who was that? I am interested in working with employers in Greenwood to develop support programs for their employees.
Thanks! Leslie

Hi Rose,
I faced the exact same struggle as an LDRP nurse with laboring patients. I sometimes found it difficult to get away at the right times to pump. If you work at Self, there is a pumping room that may be convenient for you. What I did was try to fit my pumping around the schedule of my patients, and found some supportive co-workers that could cover me while I was gone. If you use the hospital grade pump (like in the pumping room), you will get your pumping down to taking just 5 mins more than likely. If necessary, its always best to pump a little early, than late (just for your own comfort). What I would do was feed my baby in the am (6a) before I went to work or I would go ahead and pump then if it wasn't time for baby to eat. Then, I would try to pump at around 9:30 or 10a (which would probably be in between a 7:30a case for you and the next one maybe). Then I would take the late lunch at 1 and pump right after eating. Then I would pump around 4:30p for the last time. Then when I got home, my baby was ready to eat again, or I would pump at home and get back on baby's schedule for the next feed. It's really important for you to feed baby at the breast whenever you are with them, to make sure your supply keeps up. And the other thing is to make sure and drink plenty while you are at work (that was really my biggest problem as a nurse, was being able to get enough to drink). If you have any other specific questions, Brandi the Lactation Consultant at Self can answer questions and even has a store at Self where you can buy supplies. If you have your own tubing (or she can sell you some), then all you have to take to Self is that and some storage containers. They have the hospital grade double electric pump there for you to use. Brandi can show you how to use it if you aren't familiar.  ---Leslie

My son is eleven weeks old and I will be returning to work in a week, since birth he has only had breastmilk.  I want to continue to nurse after I return to work and I have been pumping some in order to have a supply in the freezer for him while I am away.  I am a nurse and although I only have to work 3 days a week, I work long hours (10-12 hours).  I work in surgery so I am concerned that I will not be able to pump on a regular basis.  I need some advice on how I can make this work!  thanks

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/ReproductiveHealth/Story?id=4612747&page=2

A mommie I know shared this and I thought you all may find it interesting as well. 

That is really neat, Leslie!  I thought of you earlier today when I came across this--

http://consciouswoman.org/register/product_info.php?products_id=3

Not sure if you're familiar with Conscious Woman (many of the SC activists are, from what I know), but it's a wonderful resource.

I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be in SC, as I'm already applying for out-of-state jobs now, or else I'd be interested.

Hello Everyone! Well as you know I am highly involved in the SC BF Coalition and all the legislative efforts for breastfeeding in SC. Well, I am now the chair of the SCBFC and I am excited to announce that we have been awarded a national grant (one of just 10 states) to do train-the-trainer education that would help us get more employers in SC to be supportive of breastfeeding. The big training will occur in the summer, then we have money to help us spread that knowledge doing smaller trainings around the state or however we choose to do it. It is really exciting and certainly a necessary step towards getting the state to mandate that employers support lactation in the workplace. I thought some of you may be interested in working on this new project. Let me know if you are interested. We are working on it through the legislative action committee for breastfeeding.

I'd really like to talk to you further about teeth.  How can I contact you?  It seems we were doing ok and now I'm not so sure. 

forgot to add an update.  I gave her my old boppy, and yesterday morning her milk came in and baby nursed in the morning, but not for long.  I told her everything I could to let her know that's normal and that if she wants to nurse for any length of time then she needs to nurse more than pump.  She said that the dr.'s told her to just pump every 3 hours to keep up supply.  I told her that wasn't so and pumping excusively WILL deplete your supply.  If she doesn't nurse as much as baby is willing and figure out ways around baby's unwillingness to nurse, then she's looking at about 8-12 weeks of breastmilk if she's lucky.

That would tick me off too.  Maybe many a mom wouldn't have to deal staying up all night with a screaming baby that just wants to nurse for comfort if the aap and other groups wouldn't be so adamantly against cosleeping.  Maybe explaining that there is a safe way to do it and cosleeping is the only way to keep your sanity if you're bfing.  Sure it's not a good idea if you're not bfing because the risk of sids is higher for ff babies.  Yes there are people it's not really the best thing for, but there are ways around it.  They need to let new moms know that it's perfectly normal for newborns to want to nurse 20 hours a day for the first few weeks.  Just remind them that this too shall pass and so long as they embrace it, it's sooooooo much easier in the first few months than ff feeding. 

I was one of those uneduated moms with my two year old.  I had 4-5 cans of formula that were given to me in the mail even though I was big on bfing.  My ex would be like, well I want to feed the baby and he would stress me out when I wasn't pumping enough to make Anthony happy, so we broke into the formula.  that was the beginning of the end because then he decided that he liked the bottle nipple because it gave the goodies quicker, plus he got more in his tummy therefore making his tummy larger.  This resulted in the nights described of  baby nursing and nursing and never getting full.  So long as that part is explained instead of saying no bottles for the first month then I'll bet more moms would actually pay attention to it then saying, well baby is taking both so I'm not worried about it.  It's not that simple.  Results of those bad choices won't show up right away.