Amazingly, I'm still nursing Olivia. Of course, I'm happy about the health benefits that I am passing to Olivia by nursing instead of using formula. But there are pros and cons to choosing breastmilk over formula as a working mom.
Ease -- I'll give this one to nursing -- nursing is a lot easier than heating formula and dealing with a sink full of dirty bottles.
Convenience -- On one hand, I don't have to worry about having bottles and formula when we go out. On the other hand, I DO have to worry about being near a baby or a breastpump everytime I go out. I can't tell you all the times I arrived at the office to find that I had left the pump at home, or even worse, left a part of the pump drying on the dishrack. Or the days that I took a day off from work or worked from home, but ended up having to go to the office to pump (and then getting sucked into some project or inquiries from coworkers.) Or the time that I had to drive across town at lunch to get a spare part. There's also the inconvenience of handling a perishable product. I can't count the number of times I've accidentally left the milk at work when rushing out to run daycare derby. When I think about all the physical and mental energy I've expended, I'd probably give this one to formula.
Cost -- A $15 can of formula makes about 15 servings. It takes me about 1/2 hour to pump 2 servings. So, if you equate time with money (which I still have trouble doing after too many years as a graduate student,) then formula is probably cheaper.
Also pumps and all the attachments aren't cheap. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a pump from a friend, but I did rent a second pump for a while at the cost of $60/month.
Initially, we were storing milk in disposable Medela bags, which cost about 50 cents each. (Lanisoh makes a
much more inexpensive BPA free bag) One of the best tips I got was from a friend's website, which suggests using Evenflo glass bottles for storage. In addition to being reusable, they are much easier to deal with (even though Spencer thought they were retarded when I first started using them.) (Although for new moms who are stockpiling will probably want to use bags.)
Green factor -- While I do spend a lot of water and energy washing the pump parts, I think I'l l give this one to nursing -- as I don't have to wash bottles after every feeding.
Wow, reading this, I wonder why I pump. In the end, I guess I kind of enjoy nursing. Advice I'd pass to new moms who are planning to pump:
1) Make a trip down to Babiesrus to get the pump parts as soon as you can. And it's well worth it to buy a couple extra, one for home, and one for the office. Wish I had done that!
2) We were freezing the milk initially, which led to a lot of wasted milk (whatever wasn't eaten in a day had to be thrown away.) So, I started refrigerating the milk instead of freezing it. Refrigerated milk supposedly lasts 2-3 days, while thawed milk has to be thrown away at the end of the day. I'm guessing that freshly refrigerated milk may have more nutrients intact as well. I've gone back to freezing everything, as it's too much of a hassle to remember how fresh the milk is.
3) Diversify your storage. We had an all night power outage in Berkeley one night, I was glad that I had half of our stash in San Francisco.
