This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

If your reading this you are probably about to go back to work or have recently gone back to work, I know its rough… Its been about 2 months for me and I’m still not okay with being back at work. But the bills have to be paid…

After being home for a few weeks and having a schedule with baby, pumping at work can be hard and intimidating. I will share with you 5 things that have made life a little easier pumping on the job.

First a little bit of my job background, if you haven’t figured it out yet I am a pharmacist, I work in a retail setting which is another way of saying your local pharmacy. I am what you call a “floater” pharmacist I don’t have a set schedule or a set location. Because of that whenever I go somewhere new I really have no clue what my pumping conditions will be like. Some locations I’ve had an entire room to myself to pump, other locations I’ve literally been in the corner of the pharmacy where they kept the vacuum and broom and had to use a step ladder to put my pump down, I’m not kidding… see picture below. Because of this I need to be prepared for everything.

Get Yourself a Portable Pump

By portable pump I mean something that is not too heavy and that can be charge and does not require you to be by an outlet while pumping, because lets face it if your job is like mine you won’t always have an outlet nearby. Two of my favorites are the Baby Buddha and the Spectra S1 I do own both of these and purchased them with my own money. But honestly if I knew about the Bay Buddha first I would have not purchased the Spectra S1 don’t get me wrong the spectra is great! but the Baby Buddha is just wayyy more portable and convenient.

Get a Hands Free Pumping Bra

If your job is like mine and you don’t really get a lunch break or your using your lunch break to pump then this will be a life saver! I’m the queen of multitasking, which is probably why I have been able to survive as a retail pharmacist…. A pumping bra was definitely a must for me! I can eat while I pump! Unfortunately the one that I have and love is no longer available, It was honestly not the quality bra, but for the price it did its job well. So I recently purchased this one and this one to test out because it was time for a new one.

Have a Cooler Bag With Ice Packs

I don’t know about you by I don’t trust putting my breast milk in the break room freezer that everyone has access to, maybe I’m just paranoid like that. I bring about 2 ice packs to work and I put them in the freezer when I get to work. If I have a long shift I can rotate the ice packs to make sure the milk stays cool. I actually use this wet/dry bag which is not really a cooler but it works for me, I just stick my icepacks in it. I probably wouldn’t use it if I had a job where the temperature wasn’t relatively cold at all times.

Get Wet Bags for Your Pumping Accessories

I would suggest purchasing at least 2 of them one for clean accessories and one for dirty accessories. When I first started pumping at work I would use ziplock bags until I realized how much money I was wasting so I switched to using wet bags. I spend way less money plus thats more environmentally friendly. I own four of these wet bags so I can rotate between them when I don’t have time to wash them ( you might say thats not very minimalist of me but trust me when you become a mom you barely have time to do anything so whatever makes life a little easier and you can afford it don’t let anyone tell you that your wasting money).

Every Day Set a Specific Time to Pump and Stick to It 

This was the hardest for me because I don’t have the same work schedule every day and I am always at a different location. In the beginning I ended up missing some pumping session because we were so busy and I didn’t plan ahead and my supply really suffered. I’m still struggling with my supply… So learn from my mistake stick to your pumping time. Now what I do when I come in I look at the schedule to see what time I will have help and tell everyone as soon as I come in what time I will be pumping. Of course I never go exactly at the time I decided because you can never predict whats going to happen but I don’t deviate more than an half an hour from it.

What did you do that helped you with pumping at work ? Share with me below in the comment.

As always thank you for stopping by! Follow my mommy journey on Instagram