Know the benefits! Several studies show that breastfeeding helps individual families as well as employers– improved productivity and employee loyalty, enhanced public image of the employer, AND decreased absenteeism, health care costs, and employee turnover.

Employers must provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express milk” per the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), signed into effect March 2010.

A few caveats,

• this time expressing milk is unpaid time
• employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to comply if it would cause the company financial strain
• there is no other legislation to require an employer to give additional breaks outside of time needed to express milk.

Your doctor can give you a letter for your employer to help facilitate “pump time.”

http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/letter-from-employees-physician.pdf

A great governmental resource to help with details of returning to work is http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/government-programs/business-case-for-breastfeeding/employees-guide.pdf

Hope this helps.