We’ve all been there – Topless in the parking lot of a Fort Myers Panera, the whir of a Spectra S1 lulling you into a relaxing trance before your client meeting.  Your pump bra is in the trunk in your suitcase, so you just hold those flanges steady while longingly staring at your “Pick 2” lunch, knowing that you won’t have time to eat it.

Pumping and traveling is HARD y’all!  If you’re like me, you try to cram all of your meetings into as few days as possible in an effort to minimize time away from your baby.  You move from car, to airplane, to meeting and back.  Before you know it, your tits are ready to burst, you feel like you’re gonna puke, and BAM plugged ducts or mastitis.   I have learned a LOT in this 14 months (and going) of nursing with almost weekly travel, so I figured I’d share some of my own best practices.

Pack Extras

Whether it be extra pump parts, a spare manual pump, or a backup battery, pack a Plan B.  Too many times I have forgotten just ONE tiny piece of my pump, or the battery pack.  Nobody wants to hand express into an airplane bathroom sink or Uber to the closet Walmart between meetings.  No one. My new go to is to pack my Spectra, and then to also pack my manual pump.  That way if I need to pump in the car, or my seat on the airplane, I’ve got options. If I end up forgetting a flange, a duckbill, whatever, I have a second option to hold me over until I can get a replacement part or until I go home.  Also, remember extra milk bottles/bags just in case!  I often underestimate how much I pump in a 24 hour period.

Pick Your Target

If you’re flying, do some research on the airports that you’re flying out of and into to see if there are nursing rooms available.  Pumping in a bathroom stall should be your absolute last option. Would you want to eat food that was prepared in a bathroom stall?  Neither does your baby!  Say that to anyone who suggests that that’s a good option.  I especially love saying that to unsuspecting men.

Major hubs like Atlanta, Miami, Houston and Charlotte have either nursing suites or MamaVa nursing pods.  Consult the Google before you fly so you can find out if pumping before you take off, after you land, or during a layover (or all three) are an option.  Some MamaVa pods require the app in order to unlock the nursing pod, so download that first if you plan to use one.

Know Thine TSA Protocol

I have had a fabulous experience with TSA as a breastfeeding mom.  There was only one tiny snafu in which a newer TSA agent tried to tell me that I could only have 3 oz bottles of breastmilk.  I kindly pointed her towards a copy of the TSA rules, she brought her manager over, and I was on my way.  In general though, I have had some of the sweetest men and women congratulate me on extended breastfeeding, and share some of their own family’s breastfeeding journeys.  Don’t stress!

A few things to note:

• You might want to print out the TSA rules for traveling with breastmilk just in case someone is having a bad day and gives you a hard time.  You can find them HERE
• If your milk and your ice pack are frozen solid, they do not need to run your milk through the machine to test it.  If they are partially thawed – to the machine with you!
• I like to tell the agents at the front of the belt that I have breastmilk. They tell the person looking in the little X-ray TV, and then they know what they’re looking a when 60oz of liquids show up on their screen
• Pack your milk in bottles, if possible – Since each individual bag or bottle will be run through the machine, I prefer to use something sturdier, like a Medela storage bottle to avoid potential puncture and spillage of my milk sweat and tears

Call ahead

Call ahead to your hotel to make sure that there is a fridge in your room, and if there isn’t ask if they can have one waiting for you when you arrive.  Call again on your way to the hotel in case housekeeping never got the memo, so you don’t have to waste time waiting around for it.  I have gotten stuck there waiting for housekeeping to arrive while I nervously counted down the minutes until I had to leave for a client meeting.  Worst case, you can always put your milk in the ice bucket and fill it with ice to keep it cool while you’re out, but I prefer the cooling continuity of a fridge.

ind out where it is in relation to your meetings and sessions so you can figure out when you will hit the Mother’s Room. Many times it will just be a spare meeting room that they set aside for nursing moms and give you a key to enter. I suggest facing away from the door (if you give a crap) — I’ve been walked in on many times. The conference staff aren’t accustomed to using those rooms as Mother’s Rooms and sometimes forget. Meh.

Stay Cool

Figuring out how the f*** to keep your milk cool all day while you’re out and about shaking hands and dealing deals is a challenge.  As if you need one more thing to worry about as you lug your pump bag, laptop and suitcase around a strange city!  

On the way there, I prefer to bring some small ice packs that I’ve gotten from home meal services.  That way if I lose one or have to toss it, no big deal. Once those suckers have melted, if keeping the milk in the fridge isn’t an option, I also bring some spare Ziplocs with me, and fill them with ice at my hotel, or ask a server to bring me some ice when I’m out to lunch. If I’m in a real pinch, I’ll hit up the Starbucks, order a coffee with a Venti cup of ice on the side, and fill up several milk storage bags and surround my expressed milk with them. Ive had some leaks from using straight up ice, but my precious cargo remained cool and drinkable, so that was ok with me.

Get it In Where You Can Fit it In

It is HARD to find both the time and the place to pump while on a road trip.  I’m no stranger to manually expressing on the highway to the tune of Back Dat Azz Up, for example.  I often have to travel with my (male) boss from meeting to meeting, and he has little concept of what the pumping life requires, nor do I care to share.  To avoid mastitis and to make sure I don’t negatively affect my milk supply by neglecting my sweater puppets, I have to get creative.  This sometimes means wearing a hands free bra under my work clothes so that I can hook up a battery to my pump, and pumping on the drive to and from the airport.

For Longer Trips

If you’re going to be away for 3 days or more, or if you’re a mass producer, you might consider shipping your milk home.  Milk Stork is a pricy, but fantastic solution to ship breastmilk home to your baby and caretaker.  A few things to be aware of when shipping with Milk Stork:

• If you’re traveling over the weekend for work and you ship on a Saturday, your milk will arrive on Monday. Similarly, there are no Sunday shipments.  Milk Stork ships through FedEx, and these are carrier limitations.
• They have no control over weather, or FedEx delays.  II, unfortunately found this out first hand when there were several days of intense fog, and my milk was delayed several days.  Luckily, their ice packs last for up to 72 hours, so my milk arrived in great shape despite the lag time.  To prepare for potential delays, make sure that you have enough milk to hold baby over for the entire trip and use this service to get your milk home safely and hassle free rather than as a means to feed baby while you’re away.

You Got This

Being both a nursing and a working mom means disposing of that very last fuck that you have to give, and pumping in your airplane seat or in a parked car.  We’re doing the very best that we can for our babies, and we should take no prisoners and give no apologies.

What are your travel hacks when traveling without baby?  I’m still nursing, and still learning, and I’d love to hear your pro tips!