The most common reason for a mother to be away from her baby is due to working outside of the home. If mom has to travel for her job, this may take her away for days at a time. While this is the most common scenario, mom can also be forced to be away from her baby because of illness in herself, another of her children, or another family member. The ideal situation is one in which baby can travel with mom. While mom will still have to pump so that baby will have milk while mom is at work, this is no different from what goes on at home. When a mother must travel without baby, pumping becomes crucial, both before and during the trip.
A few days prior to leaving on your trip, you should be pumping extra milk to store for your baby to have while you are gone. You want to be sure you leave enough milk behind, so over estimate the amount your baby will need to be sure there is an ample supply.
When you are away from your baby, you won’t have that stimulation that your baby gives you and if you don’t pump, your milk supply will be diminished or disappear, depending on how long you are away. Breast milk is a precious commodity. Throwing it away may not be something with which you are comfortable, yet you may be concerned about how you will be able to store your expressed milk and transfer it home safely. Fortunately, this is not as difficult as it may seem.
If you need to travel, either you may be more comfortable with a manual pump, which is easier to transport and use discreetly, or you may feel better using a top-of-the-line pump that is efficient and easy to transport. Both may be necessary, depending on the amount of time you will spend in transit and how long you will be away. If you are on a plane for eight hours, it may be difficult to pump with your electric pump, but it is relatively easy to slip into the washroom and use your manual pump. Conversely, you might want to set yourself up to pump with the double electric pump once you are settled in your hotel room. This type of pump is important to have with you if you are going to be gone for a few days, because it will be the most effective one for keeping up your milk supply.
When you arrive at your hotel, speak with the person at the desk immediately about your needs regarding storage for your breast milk. You may have a room or a suite with its own refrigerator, which would be ideal. However, life is not always ideal, but hotels are generally very accommodating, allowing you to store your milk in their kitchen fridge. You also can make use of your cooler bags and the hotel ice machine and keep refreshing the ice as it melts. A little more work, but worth it in the long run.
The bigger issue is how to get the milk you have pumped home to your baby. Many of the higher-end pumps include storage space in the carrying case, which may be all you need. Again, this depends on how long you will be away. If you are to be gone for a few days, then you will need to go on your trip armed with lots of your biggest bottles, Ziploc bags, cooler bags, and ice packs. Whatever you have pumped during your time away will have to be stored with ice or the freezer packs (if you had a place to keep them frozen) in your cooler bags. This is generally sufficient to get the milk home. If it is a long trip back, you may have to empty the water and refill the ice along the way.
These are the La Leche League guidelines for the storage of breast milk:
- at room temperature (66-72°F, 19-22°C) for up to 10 hours
- in a refrigerator (32-39°F, 0-4°C) for up to 8 days
- in a freezer compartment inside a refrigerator (variable temperature due to the door opening frequently) for up to 2 weeks
- in a freezer compartment with a separate door (variable temperature due to the door opening frequently) for up to 3 to 4 months.
- in a separate deep-freeze (0°F, -19°C) for up to 6 months or longer.
If you follow these guidelines you will want to freeze your milk if you are going to be away for a week or longer. This brings up the issue of getting your milk home. Unless you can pack it and ship it frozen, there may be no point in saving it, at least from the early days of your trip, because if it thaws on the way home you will not be able to freeze it again. Keeping it cold, but in its liquid state for the duration of your trip will allow you to freeze it when you get home so that you can have it available for when your baby needs pumped milk again. Maybe this will be your baby’s milk supply for your next trip away.
Of course, the best thing is to be able to take your baby with you when you travel, but this is not always an option. It takes a lot of planning when you are going to travel away from your baby. No matter what, you will need to pump so that you can keep up your milk supply so that when you get home you and your baby can resume the beautiful nursing relationship you share. Take a picture of your baby and a recording of the cooing and crying sounds your baby makes to help you have a letdown for pumping. If you want to save the milk you express and bring it home then you will need to be prepared with the proper storage materials, but it is well worth the effort not to waste a single drop of nature’s perfect food.
