1. Ice Packs.
Bring ice packs proportional to the amount of pumped milk you plan to
carry home. For example, if you will be
gone a week, then 1-2 ice packs is not enough.
If you plan to carry ice packs on the plane, make sure they are frozen
to avoid extra screening through security.
I usually would pack my extra ice packs in my checked bag if possible to
avoid having to carry them on plane before I needed them.
2. Milk Storage and Transport. Depending on the length of your trip, you
will need more space than your pump cooler bag allows. I purchased a foldable, neoprene cooler bag
of medium size and packed it in my suitcase.
On my return trip home, I packed it full of milk and ice packs allowing
for plenty of space to bring home the milk.
No need to dump any milk!
3. No place to Pump, No problem. During much of my travel, I was driving from
meeting to meeting. Because of this I
either had no time or no place to pump.
Out of necessity, and this may sound crazy, but I had to learn to pump
and drive. This endeavor is actually
quite easy. Hook up your pump as normal
and place it in the passenger seat.
Ideally, instead of using a battery pack (I always found the pump wasn’t
as powerful when run off batteries), purchase an appropriate cord to connect
pump to the car’s lighter outlet. Bonus if the car has an actual outlet. The key to this scenario is to also bring
your nursing cover so once the pump is going, cover yourself up and pump
away! No one you drive by will be the
wiser.
4.
Pumping at the Airport. The best place to pump without
a doubt is a family restroom. There is
always an outlet, usually a bench and/or shelf, and is completely private. Do not feel guilty for hogging the family
restroom for 20 minutes. I have seen
many a pumping mama exiting the family restroom as well as the male business
traveler. Hmm.
5. Carrying Home Pumped Milk. Ideally, try to freeze the pumped milk before
you depart. This is especially helpful
if your travel home is relatively short (1-3 hours) and you will freeze the
milk upon your return home. Frozen milk
packed with enough ice packs will stay mostly frozen in this time and if you
can get it right in the freezer when you get home, it will be fine. Travel of longer time periods you may not
want to freeze as it may fully defrost, so just make sure you have enough ice
packs to keep it cold.
6. Have a Schedule.
I always found it easiest to stick to my baby’s normal feeding schedule
in order to time pumping sessions, whenever possible. The reason this is important is that you
don’t want your milk supply to be negatively affected by missed feeding
sessions. Milk production is truly
supply and demand and since your baby is not there to drain the boobs, sticking
to a pumping schedule could be the most important part of your travel. Case in point, if your baby is still feeding
at night, you might want to still get up at night to pump. If you can’t resist a full night sleep alone
in a hotel room (Ahem), pump immediately before sleep and right when you
wake. One or possibly two nights of
missed night pumping is not the end of the world, however, more than that could
create a milk shortage during the day.
7. Drink and Eat. Don’t forget to take care of yourself and this
includes enough calories and plenty of water to produce enough milk. Work travel can be busy and it is easy to
forget this, or not have access to enough sustenance. I avoided this by packing snacks, a refillable
water bottle, and stopping at a grocery store when I arrived to my destination
to stock up on food for meals and snacks.
8. Get Home and Nurse Your Baby. When you get home, your first priority is to nurse
your baby. This is important for a few
reasons. Baby has missed mommy and you
want to re-establish the connection and let baby know you are still open for
business. Also, depending how long you were gone, your boobs may need a good
draining. In my experience, more than
3-4 days solo-pumping and I would get a bit tender. One good nursing session and my boobs were
always back to normal.
Are these tips helpful? Do you have a lot of experience travelling and pumping?
What would you add to my list?
Very helpful! I totally agree with the tip to plug the pump into the car! I learned the hard way once that the pump battery is not as strong as you would think when it died mid pump : (
ReplyDeletePumping and driving is a skill that every working momma should know how to do! Saves so much time, haha. Great tips! :)
ReplyDelete