Breastfeeding exclusively (giving your baby no other food or drink) is recommended for around the first six months. After that time, breastfeeding is recommended alongside solid food. Therefore it's likely that you'll be breastfeeding when you return to work or college.

The following information may help you. There are several options. You can:

• Arrange for childcare close to work or college so that you can breastfeed during breaks, or before and after work. The evening feed can be a wonderful way for you to relax with your baby after work or college.
• Express breast milk (taking milk from the breast by hand or using a pump) so that someone else can feed your baby while you're at work.
• Ask your employer or college for flexible working hours that are arranged around your breastfeeding needs.
• Combine breastfeeding and bottle feeding to fit around your hours.

Think about it early. Before you go back to work, write to your employer/tutor to let them know. You may have an HR department that can help. It can make preparations, such as finding you a private room where you can breastfeed or express your milk.

Useful ideas

• Label and date expressed breast milk before putting it in the fridge or freezer so that your childminder knows which one to use first.
• Have a trial run with childcare before returning to work.
• If you're using milk within five days of expressing it, it's better to store it in the fridge than in the freezer. This means milk expressed at work on Fridays can be taken home and stored in your fridge to be used on Mondays. Read more about storing breast milk.

You can also download or order ‘A guide for new and expectant mothers who work’ from theHealth and Safety Executive website. This website also has a good section about your rights as a breastfeeding employee. You may also find 'Pregnancy and Work: what you need to know' (PDF, 1mb) useful.

Information for employers

• Employers have certain legal obligations to breastfeeding mothers. Supporting breastfeeding has business benefits too. These include: reduced absence due to child sickness (breastfed babies are generally healthier)
• increased staff morale and loyalty, and a subsequently higher rate of return to work
• lower recruitment and training costs
• an extra incentive to offer potential employees

How can employers help?
Employers can have a policy to support breastfeeding. This includes:

• a break allowance for mothers to express milk
• provision of a clean, warm and private room (not the toilet) for expressing
• a secure clean fridge to store expressed milk
• flexible working hours for breastfeeding mothers

Let your employees know about your policy before they start their maternity leave.