Hi iveehill. How old is baby? Have you had any issues with low production previously?
But this average per hour number is based on normal nursing frequency, which would mean baby is nursing a few times overnight. If your baby regularly is not nursing for about a 10 hour stretch every night, I would be concerned that baby might need much more while you are at work. But how much of a shortfall there is would depend on how much baby is taking in when nursing, and that is hard to estimate. You could watch weight gain and behavior to see if baby is continuing to get enough milk.
I am curious if you pump overnight, and if not, do you feel full overnight?
It might make sense to add in either nursing or pumping sessions overnight not only to either get more milk overall into baby without having to pump more, or to have more milk to leave for baby while you are at work, but also to protect your milk production going forward.
Yes, it is possible to increase pump output as time goes on. But you also have to be realistic. In fact your pump output is already within normal range. So it may well increase but probably not a huge amount. To increase overall milk expressed may mean more pump sessions- in fact many moms are not able to pump as much as baby needs over a work day, even when their production is normal. Since you are already pumping with high frequency at work, I do not think increasing pumping there is going to help. Some moms pump overnight, on weekends, in the mornings, on their commute, etc.
Be very sure that your baby's caregivers know how to bottlefeed the breastfed baby and also how to safely milk handle so that not one precious drop is lost.
If you find you are unable to pump enough and your baby needs donor milk or formula, this does
not have to mean that breastfeeding is over. You can continue to nurse your baby even if you are not able to pump enough milk for baby to have over separations.
www.kellymom.com has great articles on pumping and milk production.