Breastfeeding and Traveling Away From Baby

breastfeeding and travelingBreast feeding all three of my babies was labor of love. For me, breastfeeding was not easy and it was only due to sheer determination that kept me going, especially when it was time to go back to work with each one.

It’s a good thing that I really enjoy working outside the home because returning to work when my 3rd child was just three months presented itself with a new set of challenges that I didn’t face the with the first two; I had to travel over night multiple times when my baby was between 14 and 20 weeks old. I was shocked when I couldn’t find that much information on the Internet concerning this topic therefore I was forced to become a traveling and pumping expert while navigating airports and hotels, all while exclusively nursing. Although I hope you don’t have to do this while your baby is so young, the first thing I will tell you is it CAN be done and I will share with you everything you need to know to make you feel less anxiety about leaving your young baby while you are breastfeeding.

1) Prepare Ahead Of Time & Try Hard Stock Pile Milk

I knew a month out that I was going to have to leave my baby for five nights when she was 3.5 months old. I set the lofty goal that I only wanted her to have my breast milk, while I was gone, and guesstimated I needed 30 ounces of milk a day. My pediatrician told me to start pumping immediately after nursing her the first and third feedings of the day, to tell my body to start making more and be able to save it. It helped that my baby was going at least 8 hours sleeping each night, allowing me to set an alarm every single night at 2AM to pump. With that dedication, I barely had enough for the duration of my time away.

2) Gather Your Supplies

  • my breast pump with both the wall charger and battery-powered option
  • extra batteries for battery-powered charger
  • shields and multiple bottles with lids
  • dish soap to wash bottles at the hotel
  • microwaveable steam bags to clean them
  • soft sided insulated carry bag to transport milk
  • Clorox disinfectant wipes
  • four small gel filled ice packs
  • tons of breast milk storage bags
  • several freezer strength sandwich size baggies in case you need ice

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3) Plan Ahead

Remember that you will need to pump the identical amount of times your baby is eating at home so think about where you will be while you are traveling. For instance, I was in five days of meetings at my company’s headquarters. Since I was no where around my hotel room, I contacted my home office and had to schedule reoccurring appointment times in the various Nursing Mother’s Rooms. Good thing I did this weeks in advance, as I later found out the ideal times book out way in advance for the rooms.

If you are staying in a hotel, call them in advance and ensure they have a refrigerator in your room that is cooling adequately to store your pumped milk. Even better if it has a small freezer section where you can freeze your ice packs for the trip home.

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4) Flying

I flew on two separate trips and for  me, getting through security and back home with my liquid gold, stressed me out the most. I was scared to death those TSA agents were going to make me dump out my precious milk. TSA does have a policy on “Medically Necessary Liquids,” including breast milk stating that 3.4 ounces is okay and just has to be subjected to little more screening.

As for my experience, I walked up to the security conveyor after they checked my ticket, I proactively told them I was a nursing mom and had breast milk with me as a carry on. Both trips, they informed me it was no problem because it was considered a medical condition and they just needed to screen a couple of bags and my pump in a fancy machine. Make sure you have your pump with you as they asked me if I had it both times. I had even put my milk in two ounce quantities knowing that I would be legal, getting through security, with those individual quantities but know that I would have been safe with full 6-8 ounce bags of breast milk.

They informed me the only issue they ever see is that the gel packs must be completely frozen through or I may have to discard those. I was prepared for that to happen and carried multiple sandwich baggies where I could have a restaurant vendor fill them up with ice after making it through security.

Hopefully you are able to time your flights so that you don’t have to pump in the airport and especially the plane. But you must be prepared for both, especially if you have a layover.  A missed connection happened to me twice. The first time was an ideal scenario where I found a large, single, family bathroom that had a wall plug and I stood there and pumped for 10 minutes, ignoring the multiple knocks on the door. The second airport’s family restroom didn’t have a wall plug making me feel thankful I was prepared with my battery-powered pack that my Medela pump came with.

Don’t be afraid to mention to certain people you are a nursing mom trying to get home to your baby. On a Friday night, it scored me a coveted standby seat on an over sold plane.

5) Shipping Milk Home

I am lucky to work for a company that values working moms and pays for nursing moms to ship their milk home while away on business.  This was a super stressful process though. In my research before leaving I read about using dry ice but found out in the real world, finding and obtaining dry ice is easier said than done, especially in an unfamiliar city and one where you are limited by only using taxis. I ultimately used FedEx twice to ever night 2 days of milk each time. I purchased a cheap styrofoam cooler, box, shipping tape and additional ice packs in a local city grocery store. To overnight the fastest way from Indianapolis, in to San Antonio cost an arm and a leg, or $225 to be exact. Everything did arrive perfectly each morning by 10 AM when I mailed by 8PM but call your FedEx to find their cutoff time. What I would do differently? I had access to a freezer and immediately froze my milk thinking I needed to overnight it frozen. Instead, I would just mail it refrigerated since if it thaws it must be used within 24 hours.

Megan
Megan is a serious bargain shopper, Boxer loving, research junkie kinda gal. Chances are she can tell you the best item to buy from everything from a baby monitor to a dishwasher. She claims to be the blogger on the team that will never win an award for being an eloquent writer. In fact, she prides herself in graduating from Texas A&M University (’02) without ever having to write a paper! San Antonio born and raised, Megan learned early in life to always learn from others and she enjoys sharing helpful tips she encounters while navigating this ‘kid chapter’ of life. The three little people that gave her the title of mom and thus the inspiration to get out and explore our city, from a child’s perspective, are Carter (2006), Addie (2008) and Delaney (2013). She’ll admit, the third one has been WAY more work than they ever expected but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Her motto now is “What ever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” right?! Megan has a serious to-do list addiction which one day may need intervention; for now, this aliment allows her to accomplish the many balls she has the energy to juggle. She may be an outlier to some but loves working outside the home and is grateful for her working-mom-friendly company and career in sales, which gives her the best of both worlds. Although, Megan will be the first to tell you, without her ridiculously amazing husband and hands-on-dad, Blake, she wouldn’t be able to do any of it. Like most women, half the time she feels like she has it all together and the other part, she’s treading water trying not to drown. But as of now, she wouldn’t change a thing.

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