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| Amazing door to my pump room |
Dimly light, cozy, comfortable and with relaxing background music.
It is located within the Women’s center and every time I entered I am greeted warmly and met with encouragement!
When I first thought about pumping, I thought it would be a relaxing break every few hours. Even though I would be hooked up to a machine, I could get a few minutes of studying in. In reality I could of, but most of the time I am frantically massaging -trying to get at least 12 oz. out and back to the hospital floor as soon as possible.
My biggest concern was looking like an absent student, even though I all attendings said they understood. Because of this, I was able to make it so I could survive on one pump session a day without significantly dropping my milk supply. I just had to be sure to get the same amount of milk as I would before. I was able to accomplish during my first rotation, though I don’t recommend it because I feel like I was just lucky. A week before 6 months my supply did start to go down, and I was on my psychiatry rotation. Which meant my days ended early so levi wouldnt need as much milk sent. Also at this time I added a 2nd pump session earlier in the day.
Overall pumping can be time-consuming, inconvenient and annoying, but overall, it is so rewarding knowing that no matter how busy medical school is, I can provide the best for my son.
Pumping by Rotation
Pediatrics
Pediatrics was my first rotation. Even though I was nervous when I had first started my pumping journey, I knew that pediatricians would be the most likely to understand and welcome the pumping breaks. I found that I could easily manage my patients and attend any teaching session without my pumping breaks interfering. For this rotation, I just used one of the empty exam rooms in the outpatient clinic. This saved so much time.
Rating 10/10
Based on ease, timing and my comfort level
Ob/Gyn
My second rotation was Ob/Gyn-another field that is very pro breastfeeding. The first day I went to pump at 1pm and both of my patients delivered during the 30 minutes I was gone. I was a little letdown (no pun intended), but lucky this wasn't the pattern for the rest of the rotation. For the most part, I was able to balance predicting when a patient was going to deliver and would sometimes go and pump sooner so I didn't have to worry about painful engorgement or missing the delivery..
My rotation partners have really included supporting me as a part of 'team work"
One time during this rotation while pumping one of my patients was going to have to be brought back for a C-section and my classmate texted live updates so I was able to make it to the OR just in time.
I did push pumping a little too late once and leaked, but overall I was able to make it through the rotation Without any significant difficulty.
-I did have overnight shifts and that was a little tricky. I would have to pump during the shift for milk during the day, and while sleeping during the day I would still have to wake every few hours to pump for milk. It really threw off my rest and puming at night was hard to balance because I had no idea how much Levi ate overnight.
Rating 8/10
-Points lost because of missing deliveries and possible difficulty detecting appropriate pump breaks
Psychiatry
With shorter shifts, I thought psych would be one of the easier rotations to pump on, but during this rotation, I found pumping to be the most inconvenient. Even though we were at the hospital for 7 hours. We were only with the doctor from about 9:30-130 or 2. An hour of this time we spent on our lunch lecture and about 1 hour a day was spent pumping (two breaks about 30 min each). The psych unit is locked and often times the psych team was asked to do multiple consultations within three different buildings of the hospital. I felt like I wasted a lot of time in transport, waiting for someone to open the psych ward door or chasing the team down on one of the consults. During this rotation I felt like having to pump significantly impacted my learning experience.
Rating: 6/10.
Neurosurgery
The potential of a 10-14 hour surgery had me nervous about this rotation, but it was actually pretty relaxing and I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. When I told the neurosurgeon I would have to leave to pump he was like ' 'that’s’ so cool!' Not that I was pumping, but the fact that I have a son & breastfeed. He even made a short Comment as how awesome it is for long term benefits. He left it up to me if I wanted to get scrubbed back into a procedure after pumping.
Also the OR is located right under my pumping lounge, so no scrambling between buildings.
The PA would talk about the details of the operation that allowed me to adjust the times I pumped to align with slower parts of the procedure, while patients were being prepped or in between operations without to much discomfort.
Rating: 9.5/10
Even though pumping was manageable, I did have to leave procedures to pump.
Neurology
I was pretty nervous about neurology because it has a busy schedule but the time in between rounds were pretty independent. You were expected to see all your patients, new consults and write your notes before afternoon rounds. It was pretty easy to manage, I never even told the attending I needed to pump, and was never behind. On an occasional busy day, I would skip lunch or snack on the go, but overall it was manageable
Rating 10/10
Love Well,
WifeMD
