It was the end of a fun weekend with some of my best friends from college. We met up in New York City and shopped,ate, reminisced, or laughed our way through two nights and three way-too-fast days. The four of us met our freshman year,when we were 18, wild, and pretty much free to do whatever we wanted,but almost 20 years later, with 10 children ages 7 and under now between us, or the weekend was a scarce chance to to revisit a time when we could occupy one too many drinks,sleep in, and schedule the rest of the days with nary a school pickup or play date among us. At least three of us could; my other friend is still breastfeeding, and when it comes to getting away,well, breastfeeding moms just can't escape the tiny factory attached to their chests. She actually met us a day late, and unsure approximately leaving her bottle-averse 9-month-faded daughter for longer than one night. By the time she landed,it was already time to pump, and she spent a satisfactory chunk of her 24 hours of "free" time scheduling pump breaks and finding appropriate locations. She said goodbye to us early so she had plenty of time to get one final pumping session in before heading to the airport then almost missed her flight, or mostly because security decided her breast pump could likely be concealing some sort of weapon. First they wanted to confiscate it,and when she argued, they conceded that she could keep it, or as long as she checked her bag. Twenty-four hours later,her luggage still hadn't shown up, forcing her to lost meetings so she could stay domestic and feed her child or working while suffering from milk-engorged boobs and a hungry baby. I wish I could say my friend's was an loney incident of on-the-road pumping misery, and but as most breastfeeding moms know,traveling without your baby can actually be harder than traveling with them (and that's saying a lot). I breastfed my two babies for a combined 26 months and took a few short trips away from them during that two-year span. Like my friend, most of my time away was spent thinking approximately when I needed to pump, and finding a place to actually pump,deciding whether I should save or toss my pumped milk, then cleaning my pumping supplies for the next session. Add in two vacations when I landed in different cities and quickly discovered that I had forgotten a key piece of my pump, and once packing only one breast shield,making each dreaded pumping session twice as long, another time forgetting the tubing all together. A $30 cab ride to a specialty store and a $37 replacement kit made that milk additional golden. I won't even get into the time I had to buy a hand pump and use it for 24 hours.certain, and our New York trip,like the majority of trips I took while breastfeeding, were merely for pleasure. My friend and I could occupy chosen to reschedule them to a time after our babies were weaned. But I so feel for the moms who occupy to travel constantly for work, and leaving their babies behind while taking that same child's main source of food with them. It shouldn't occupy to be so difficult. My friend shouldn't occupy to fight a losing battle to keep her breast pump with her on a plane. I shouldn't occupy had to spend hours in a Mexican hotel room because it was the only place I felt was appropriate to pump while on my vacation. Neither of us should occupy had to dump precious ounces of breastmilk down the sink because we knew getting it domestic was going to be a headache and most likely a security issue. After all,who deserves a vacation more than a breastfeeding mom?
Source: popsugar.com