Perfectionism
Under pressure to breastfeed exclusively during the first six months, many moms are crippled by an all-or-nothing mentality that nursing must be done flawlessly or not at all. Almost half of the moms in a recent Babytalk poll said they were made to feel that they were "cheating" if they supplemented breastfeeding with formula. But the bottom line is that you'll have more flexibility if someone else can help feed your baby.So relax. A 2005 Babytalk poll found that 82 percent of breastfeeding babies were able to alternate between breast and bottle. And many experts (and moms) will tell you that it's fine to introduce a bottle between 2 and 3 weeks if breastfeeding is going smoothly - rather than wait until 3 to 4 weeks as is often recommended.

While supplementing with expressed breast milk is ideal, there's no need to feel guilty if you're a "combo mom" who feeds her child breast milk and formula. That's what helped Rebecca Jones, a New York City teacher, stick with it. "I nursed my younger daughter for 18 months and supplemented with formula. With an older child and a full-time job, it would have been too hard for me to pump for that long."

The goal is to get some breast milk into your child - as much as you can manage. "What I try to tell mothers is, obviously, the more they breastfeed, the better," says Joan Meek, M.D., editor-in-chief of the AAP New Mother's Guide to Breastfeeding. "But the baby is going to get some benefit from any amount of breastfeeding." For example, nursing for three or four months may still give a baby a year of protection from ear infections, Dr. Meek adds. "Each mom has to decide what's right for her."

Work hassles
Lack of support in the workplace can sabotage a woman's plans to continue breastfeeding when maternity leave ends. Many lack a clean, private place to pump in addition to having a boss or coworkers who don't understand. Only 10 percent of mothers who work full-time are still breastfeeding their baby at 6 months, according to a 2005 CDC report.

"I breastfed my first child for five months, but I was working in retail at the time and found it really difficult to pump at work. My breaks didn't always agree with my pumping schedule," says Kristi Vasquez of Beaufort, South Carolina.

Nationally, employers aren't required to provide moms with a place to pump at work. There's no overwhelming support to make workplaces friendlier for nursing moms, either. The Journal of the American Dietetic Association's survey found that only 47 percent of respondents favored longer maternity leaves, and only 43 percent supported giving women a private room to pump in at work.

If you want to pump at your workplace, discuss your intentions with an approachable supervisor. Request a room with a lockable door, a place to sit, and an outlet for your pump. Reassure your employer that breastfed babies get sick less often, so you'll have more time to focus on your job. But moms will need more than a pump room to reach the one-year breastfeeding milestone. As a nation, we have to give nursing moms more support at home and in the workplace, says Kathleen Kendall-Tackett. "We're better than we used to be, but an awful lot of women are falling through the cracks."