Hellobee Boards

Hi! You are awesome for taking this trip and planning to continue breast feeding. Get your freezer supply up asap. Get a battery adapter for your pump to use it in the plane and at your meetings if you won't have a socket. And just plan to pump every 3-4 hours. If its just a one night trip, give yourself a break and sleep through the night. Don't be embarrassed. Be bold and unapologetic. If you don't feel that way, fake it. Don't shy around the subject, even with male coworkers. This isn't a forever situation. Good luck! You are awesome!

I had a similar work trip when my daughter was a baby (around 9-10 months old). I was meeting with a client and just asked them ahead of time if they would help me to make arrangements to use their lactation room. It was no big deal even though it made me feel weird to ask.

I had a decent freezer stash built up so I wasn't super concerned with planning the correct amount of milk - hopefully you'll have enough to get by! Like posters above, I didn't set any alarms to pump and only did so if I woke up super uncomfortable. A short trip shouldn't impact your supply.

My flight wasn't as long as yours but I would probably just find the airport lactation room and pump right before and after your flight (many airports have mamavas and they're great). I'd also have a manual pump on hand in the event you can't get to a private space to pump.

@mediagirl: I travelled quite a bit for work while I was still pumping. I went back to work when DD was 5 months old.
My SO was home with her during the day so I had an idea of how much she would need per bottle. She also didn’t wake up in the middle of the night if I wasn’t home to nurse...lol daddy wasn’t as good an option so better just to sleep
I would coordinate with the client to take regular breaks. I was never shy about asking to take time to pump.
As far as while you are in transit... I have no shame when it comes to nursing so I pumped in the lounge waiting for my flight to board, in my seat while on the plane , on the commuter train most mornings on my way to work...I had a Medela Freestyle so I didn’t need an outlet. I put my pumping bra on under my clothes and then wore a big zip up sweater over top and then put my nursing cover on.
I transported my milk in the Medela cooler bag.

I wasn’t in sales, but did client work last time around. Just let them know you need to pump. I had all male clients and regularly had to interrupt spontaneous important meetings because it was time to pump, or because if I didn’t right then I’d run into an actual scheduled meeting time. Even though they were annoying good ole boy types, they were cool about it. So I think just be straightforward and articulate what you need and assume they will be fine with it. I can’t remember what we did for milk. My kid was a bit older when I started going away one night/ week and at some point I had to start supplementing so maybe my husband offered formula? I honestly don’t remember. I wasn’t flying but I did have to pump on the go. I bought a battery pack for my PIS pump and honestly would just pump with a cover on the flight. I know colleagues who did this one long flights. Good luck!!

One random tip that worked well for me was I brought two packit coolers for my milk and put both in the mini fridge the hotel provided (I generally called ahead to confirm), ideally in the small freezer compartment. When I was ready to travel I would double bag the milk in the two packits. Even when I had to open the milk for security testing (because the stinking pre check line was closed!) it still kept the milk super cold for many hours of traveling.

I had to do this I think 5 times during my son's first year. It was stressful but everything worked out and we are still bf at 15 months.

I just pumped wherever it worked and did as much as possible while traveling to the work site: on the plane, in the uber, even at the airport gate, etc. (with a cover of course). Some steward on United Airlines did tell me that my "humidifier" was not permitted on the flight. But when I told him it was a breast pump, he backed off.

I brought lots of ice (there's a tsa-approved kind on amazon) and also lots of empty ziploc bags, so that if something happened to my ice stash I could get more ice inside security. (Didn't need the extra bags, never had problem with ice at tsa, tsa was always super courteous about the frozen milk and ice).

The lousiest part was trying to work in pumping during the day at work on site. I did arrange for this in advance, but then people saw an empty slot on my schedule and infringed on it. But it was fine. I did as much pumping as I could and a day of less pumping here and there won't affect supply.

I was a bit shocked at how much my LO drank overnight, And that I pumped an equally large amount in the morning I just let my husband give him formula overnight while I was gone and added to my stash with what I pumped while away. But I was pretty chill about giving formula here and there when it made life easier....

@mediagirl: I honestly have males to be so much more supportive of pumping than females, especially older females. Chances are either their wives, daughters, or sisters have dealt with pumping logistics and they just seem to get it. Or at least get it is not an option to not pump. I hope you have a similar experience!