RETURN TO WORK
Childcare
There are many options for childcare and may include sharing care within your family (your partner, grandparents) or help outside the family (dayhomes, daycares, live-in nannies, live-out nannies, on-call nannies). If local daycare may be an option for your family, apply for a position as soon as you get the positive pregnancy test!
The provincial government has several online references to help you understand your childcare options; these can be invaluable in the planning stages. http://www.hls.gov.bc.ca/publications/year/2009/parents%27_guide_child_care.pdf
Daycares
Daycares can be hard to come by. Some health regions or hospitals have daycares associated with them. In the lower mainland, Vancouver Coastal Health has contracted the YMCA to provide daycare sites at VGH (Kids at Heather), and BCCH/WHC/GF Strong (Kids at GF Strong).
There is a provincial childcare subsidy that parents in financial need can apply for. http://www.mcf.gov.bc.ca/childcare/subsidy_promo.htm
Visit Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, (www.wstcoast.org) for Vancouver Licensed Family Child Care Monthly Full Time Rates, or email for up to date list of daycare contacts
Nannies
Nannies can be Live-in, Live-out, and On-call. Live-in nannies live in your home and provide childcare. The Live-In Caregiver Program is a federal program that “helps Canadians hire foreign workers to live and work in their homes to care for children”. (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/foreign_workers/lcpdir/lcpone.shtml ).
This link (http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/domestics/obligations.htm ) summarizes the obligations in BC to hired domestic employees.
For On-call, temporary nannies, http://www.nanniesoncall.com/ is a good resource. Placement fees usually apply.
First Rotations
When planning your return to work, select rotations that will help make your transition back to work as smooth as possible. If you are still breastfeeding you might choose rotations that have no or very little call so you can physically be present to breastfeed more easily. Other people find they just want to “get the worst of the call over with”.
Your schedule will already have been disrupted if you have taken any parental leave, so it is generally not much more trouble to amend your schedule with your program director. Rearrange your return to work rotations when you are planning your parental leave. It will save you time, hassle and worry about returning to a demanding schedule. Even if you have not taken any time off, your program may be able to rearrange your schedule so that you are on a lighter schedule when your child is a newborn. Given the distributed model of medical education in BC, you might want to consider requesting rotations closer to home in advance.
Breast Feeding
Buying a Breast Pump
It is recommended that you invest in a breast pump since you never know when the hospital pump will be unavailable or when you will be in clinics or at sites without breast pump facilities. Well known brands for breast pumps include Medela and Ameda. Ask friends who have breast pumps how they like their model.
What you choose to buy will depend on how much you are pumping, the age of your child and how long and often you are away from your child.
- Manual hand pumps are generally small and portable. They do not require an electrical outlet and so where you pump is quite flexible. Manual pumps are best suited to occasional use, slower and only allow you to pump one breast at a time.
- The other major type of pump is electric. There are electric single and double side pumps. Double side pumps tend to be more expensive, but allow you to pump both breasts at the same time, increasing the speed at which you can pump.
Where to Pump
Some hospitals have a room especially for breastfeeding staff, others allow you to use patient facilities. Take advantage of hospitals that provide you with an institutional grade breast pump. Institutional pumps are very efficient to use and the hospital supplies the attachment parts (cleaned and sterilized), which saves you from having to clean attachment parts at work.
I have found that in hospitals without pumping facilities, it is easiest to approach nursing staff and explain that you are breastfeeding and need a private room to use a breast pump. If you have an electric pump, be sure to specify that you also need an electrical outlet. Remember many hospital staff are parents and many women have had to deal with balancing breastfeeding and work.
RCH Breast Pump Location – Royal Columbian Hospital has a Staff Pumping Room located on the Maternity Ward (3E) in the Health Care Centre Tower. Ask at the nursing desk for directions. The room is down the hall to your right as you walk into the ward, in a corridor on the left (next to the patient pumping room). Not all nurses know that there is a staff pumping room so if the first person you talk to is unsure, be persistent.
The room is equipped with a Medela institutional breast pump. Nursing staff are very helpful and will happily show you how to use the institutional pump.
Sterilized attachment parts are stored in the patient pump room next door. Once you are done, rinse the milk off the attachment parts and place them in the “dirty” bin in the patient pumping room.
Try to remember to sign the log book, as it shows how much use the room gets and how important it is to breastfeeding staff.
BCWH/BCCH Breast Pump Location - A Medela institutional breast pump is located on Arbutus Ward at BCWH. The key to the room is at the nursing desk. Pump attachment parts are located in the back room behind the nursing desk. Nursing staff are very helpful and will happily show you how to use the institutional Medela pump.
Places without Breast Pump Facilities: Queen’s Park Hospital, Eagle Ridge Hospital
