Let's face it - many moms look forward to the break from full-time mothering and there just simply aren't enough well paid, part time jobs around.
Let's look at a few of the practical issues around breast-feeding as well as weaning your baby when you return to work.
Your choices are often limited by circumstances beyond your control, but basically there are four options open to you on how to continue feeding your baby.
Always keep in mind that your decision can be left until just before you go back to work. You could also start with option one and follow through to option four over a period of weeks or months.
Continue breast-feeding
Perhaps you are fortunate enough to live close to work or your work provides a crèche facility or there may even be a suitable crèche close to your workplace.
In these instances you have the option of continuing to breast-feed. You may feel more confident if you put the idea into practice a few days before returning to work.
At three months your baby needs at least six feeds in 24 hours, by six months four or five feeds in 24 hours.
During an eight hour working day you would breast-feed your baby once, twice maybe three times, depending on your baby's age and routine and how flexible your employer is.
Time constraints do put pressure on moms but why not give it a try and give yourself the option of deciding whether it works for you or not.
After all, you can change your mind at any stage.
Continue breast-feeding and expressing
Expressing is yet another option for moms who would prefer their babies to continue on breast-milk even when they cannot be around themselves.
There is an art to expressing so it would be preferable to decide what method of expressing you are going to use and practice it beforehand.
Hand expressing, using a hand or an electric pump? Most moms would opt for the electric pump.
An advantage of practising this method beforehand is that you then have the opportunity of expressing and freezing milk for later use.
The principle would be that, once at work, you would express during the day and store that milk in a cool place for use the next day.
Should you not be able to express enough you could still use the previously frozen milk.
Continue breast-feeding, expressing and/or formula feeds
Perhaps you find the previous methods too stressful or it may not suit your particular circumstances.
Try a combination of breast-feeding and formula feeding. Continue to breast-feed your baby when at home. Express what you can when you can at work.
The younger your baby the more important expressing during the day would be needed to maintain your milk supply.
From three or four months onwards your milk supply may be well enough established and it may no longer be necessary to express during your working day.
Store this expressed milk in a cool place - a small cooler bag with an ice brick would do.
It can then be used the next day, either as milk feed or, should it not be enough, in your baby's cereal.
It is best not to mix expressed and formula milk in one feed - give them separately. Your baby could then drink a suitable formula feed for the remaining feeds while you are at work.
It is, however, important to breast-feed when at home in order to maintain your milk supply. Over weekends offer breast only as this will help build up your milk supply for the coming week.
Weaning onto formula
Even if you decide to wean your baby before returning to work, you need only start the weaning process a week or two beforehand.
Where possible avoid using medication to suppress your milk supply - the gradual weaning method is preferable for both mom and baby.
You would start by substituting the mid-morning feed with a formula feed. Three or four days later your breasts will no longer feel uncomfortable at this time.
The time is then right to substitute your bedtime (10pm) breast-feed with formula - and so on.
One of the advantages of this weaning method is that you have the option of stopping or delaying the weaning process at any stage.
You could, for instance, keep the evening and or the early morning feeds as breast-feeds.
This would mean for instance, that a baby over six months, who is eating three meals, would need only one formula feed during the day. - Purity