GIVING FORMULA
Some mothers want to wean baby from the breast before going back to work (or earlier) – often Mums think this is the only way, but as discussed above, employers have a duty to support your return to work as a BF mother. For more information on this click here

However some mums simply want to stop BFing when they go back to work, and this of course is fine too: baby has had a fabulous start by being breastfed and if the parents now choose to give formula instead that is no body else's business!

MIX FEEDING BREAST AND FORMULA
Some mothers may have been mix feeding formula and breastfeeding from an early stage in baby's life, but some mums think that this is what they would like to do on their return to work: for instance giving formula during the day and continuing to breastfeed when mother and child are together. This doesn't work for everyone, but it's definitely a possibility. Fiona says: “When I had my first baby I didn't know a great deal about breastfeeding. When I went back to work I couldn't express enough so went over to sending bottles of formula to nursery, but I continued to breastfeed on demand whenever we were together. I did this very successfully, and found it really nice to still be able to bf her after work etc. Apart from feeling a bit uncomfortable on Mondays (I had Fridays and weekends off usually) we never had any problems. Much later I was told that it was "impossible" to do that.. .by which time I'd been doing it for a good 6 months! I'm glad I didn't know that it couldn't be done before I did it!”