Traveling While Breastfeeding

Just keep in mind---pumping is a really good thing--but it takes more pumping than feeding to keep it up. It's hard to realize, but if you pump for the same amt of time the baby is actually nursing, you are using more when she is nursing. It will seem like you are having to pump twice as much as you're feeding her. Just do it AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Even if you don't want to wake yourself up @ night, do it OFTEN in the day. The post before me is right. When you get back to her, it'll come back quickley if it goes down a little. :)

I wasn't able to breastfeed my children, but I would suspect that your questions would best be answered by a Lactation Consultant, or your OB/Gyn or pediatrician. (I think LC is the best of the 3 for your questions.)

Be sure and ask about how to handle the pain if your breasts are getting too full, and you're in the middle of a flight! (*You might also want to double- and triple-up on your breast pads while you're flying, in case of moderate to severe leakage....Just a thought.*)

Best Wishes!
~J.~

I can only tell you my experience. I also travel for work – usually home for a few weeks then away for several days. I have been doing this since my daughter was 2 months old – now she is 4.5 months. My daughter nurses every three hours during the day and then every 6 hours at night. I can’t ever match this when I travel – between the flights and then I teach a class when I get where I am going. So I will pump first thing in the morning (I don’t wake to pump at night so I am really full in the morning – and it takes me a lot longer than normal. After I get ready (about an hour later) I will pump about 5-10 more minutes just to get any new milk out so I am totally empty before leaving. Then will usually end up pumping 5-6 hours later. Then 5-6 hours after that. Usually by then I am somewhere where I can pump every three hours until I go to bed. Then when I get home I just go back to feeding her normally. I freeze the milk I bring back and have supply for next time. I haven’t had any problems with my milk supply. It seems to adjust back to normal as soon as I get home. I think the key is to try to match as much as possible – but don’t stress on the times you can’t. I look at it this way – if you have to work – then it is better to try to keep nursing as long as you can and if your milk supply dries – it dries. But better to try then not try at all.

Also – I was pretty paranoid about my milk supply as well. So I started using this mother’s milk tea. When I feel like my supply is low – I use it. It says to use one table spoon for one cup of water – but I usually just use one tablespoon for several cups. It seems to help – although it could just be the extra water intake ;-) I know you can also get a medication from doctor if it starts to dry up and you really want to keep nursing – but I wouldn’t really worry about that until you need it.

Just a few hints -- I would also invest in a good electric pump. I have the medella pump in the metro bag. It is stylish. I really like it. It will be worth the extra cost to get a good pump. I usually take with me 4 sets of pump materials (connector, shield, etc) and about 8 bottles. I also bought a bottle brush to take with me, a burp cloth and a small container of dish soap – airport size ;-) That way I can pump several times during the day without having to wash stuff (because I often have to pump in bathrooms – even at the airport once . After I pump I just rinse and put everything in a plastic bag. You can get wipes – but I find that a wet wipe works just as well if you don’t plan to use it again before washing. I don’t know if airline staff have to follow the same rules as other passengers – but you can take your milk through airport security. I keep it all in cooler packs and I pull out my pump and my milk and put them in a separate tray and haven’t had any problems – except for the time I left the lanolin in the pocket of the pump and they inspected my pump. If you want to take bags instead of bottles for storage I find the gerber bags to be the best – they don’t seem to leak for me. The Medellas leaked really badly. I would take a big ziplock bag though to put the smaller bags in – just in case though. I keep a black sharpie in the suitcase as well to write on the bags.

I am using those breastfeeding bottles from first years – the ones with two nipples that is supposed to simulate breastfeeding. I like those. She seems to adjust back and forth pretty easily.

My biggest challenge was trying to figure out exactly how much she would be consuming at each feeding to have enough for a bottle but not having a bunch of milk dumped down the drain because she didn’t consume it all. I still struggle with that.

Okay – that was probably way more than you wanted to know. But just trying to help.

The only thing I have to add to the other posts is to remember that even if your milk supply diminishes when you're away, it will come back up once you're with your daughter again. So pump as much as you can when you're away, but don't stress too much if you're not getting as much as you'd like. Once you're back with your baby for a day or two, your milk supply will come back to normal (as long as it hasn't gone away entirely!). Good luck!

Your milk supply is probably established by now. However, you will still need to pump at your daughter's normal feeding times. If you try to stretch it to longer time frames you may need to pump longer when you do as to get more milk at those times. It is definitely a supply & demand response. I also heard that there is a store in Frisco on Preston that sells various gadgets(a special bra) for working moms to help keep there milk supply up.

You will be fine, I would pump at least every 3-4 hours, if that's what you are used to. I pumped a lot, mostly pumped, cause breastfeeding didn't go well with me. I breastfeed for about 2 months off an on, however I have hand problems, it was too tough holding my son and I was in pain also. Sometimes I overslept and was suppose to pump in the wee hours of the night! I did fine, however I would be extremely full of milk and would have to pump longer and I would produce more milk. You may be more uncomfortable when you stretch out your times of pumping. I was always a little more uncomfortable when I stretched it out sometimes. Your milk is established and as long as you keep breastfeeding and pumping, you will keep producing milk. Once you stop breastfeeding or pumping, that's when your milk supply starts to slow down.

The way we did it, is if our child is crying and wanting milk then I would feed him. If he wasn't, then we didn't wake him up just to feed him. We just made sure he was getting enough milk (per the Dr.'s instructions) during the 24 hour period. We didn't want to wake our child up, when he may not be hungry. You could try this and see how it works. This way you are feeding your child based on their signals and listening to them and their needs.

Good Luck, C.

I hope pumping works well for you. I work full-time, but never out of town, and was so dedicated to BFing for a year. Pumping just didn't work for me. I bought a big expensive Medela pump. I had to quit at 6 months, but just recently I learned about a $50 Avent hand pump that is more effective for some women b/c it actually feels like the baby nursing. The Medela pump didn't feel anything like that. So I think I will buy the Avent pump for our next child. Anyway, the point of that was, if your pump isn't working well for you, please try another one. HTH.