Keeping up Milk Supply After 5 Day Trip Away from Baby

I went to Italy in Feb. for the Winter Olympics. My husband and I planned the trip before we knew I was pregnant. My daughter was 5 months old when it was time to go.The lactation consultant at the hospital suggested that I take a hospital grade pump with me for the 8 day trip. So I rented one from the hospital even though I had a playtex electric pump at home.

Unless you plan to stay in the hotel all day and pump at the same time as you would feed your baby, you will become engorged. My husband and I had to cut our sightseeing short everyday because my breast would swell and ache. They swelled so hard the that the pump would not work on them at all. My husband had to manually pump them by hand.

After the trip, my milk production was down in the right breast and almost completely gone in the left. My daughter was with her grandparents in NJ and we joined her there after our trip. For the next four days I had to feed her exclusively from my beast ( no bottles at all) to regain the production in my right breast. My left breast never returned to full production.

We took a late night flight to Italy so I manually pumped in the bathroom while most of the passengers were a sleep. If you take an electric pump along on your trip find out if you need an adapter for it to work in another country. Luckily my hotel had one to give me.

Also, security at Malpensa made me step out of line and started questioning me about the pump in Italian. I could only answer in English and they did not understand. I had to put my hand on my breasts. They thought I was putting it on my chest and one of them shouted "respirator" so I said yes and they let me go.

That was my experience. I hope yours is better.

M.:

many years ago a mother in my practice went to Egypt.. She used the Avent ISIS very sucessfully to maintain her supply. Though hand pumping is more work she did not have to worry about finding appropriate electricity.

P.,RLC, IBCLC
Pres. Lactation Support Group, Inc
www.lactationsupportgroup.com

M.,
I HIGHLY suggest you post this question to the yahoo group "pumpmoms". Lots of ladies there should be able to give you some great advice - a lot of them actually exclusively pump, so they're really pros. I took a 2 day business trip without my then-3-month-old and it was really hard but I was able to bring back over a gallon of breastmilk with me! Here's what I would do if I were you:

1. use an Avent Isis manual pump. Contrary to what some people say, this is a great pump and if you give it the time you can actually get quite a bit MORE milk out with it. Plus, it's amazingly portable. You can probably pump right in your plane seat and nobody will be the wiser if you've got someone (husband?) to "shield" you.

2. Pump at least every 5 hours - preferably every 4 - to prevent engorgement and to keep your supply up. You want to shoot to pump about as much as your daughter would eat each day but either way, just do your best. Probably spending 15-20 minutes per breast should take care of it. You can probably get away with sleeping for a 7-8 hour stretch at night but be prepared to pump a bit longer in the morning (you will probably get a LOT out - I was getting 12-14 oz in the morning pump when I did my out of town trip).

3. You can certainly bring a double electric pump - bring 2 sets of batteries and a power converter. Maybe bring rechargables and a recharger? Be warned that your suction will be super strong because everything over there is on 220 volts.

4. nurse like crazy when you get back. if you can get ice, you can probably check some of the milk to bring back? otherwise you'll have to dump :(

I travel quite a bit for work. I suggest that you skip the double electric pump and use a handheld one. You won't get as much milk but you don't care because you will dump it anyway. This will keep enough milk flowing for the baby to bring it back when you come home. I ended up pumping once in the am and once around dinner (even though I nursed more often). It work o.k. for me and I was never much of a "producer". I nursed my daughter until she was a year old.

Most electric pumps come with either adaptors, or they can somehow be used with batteries (I think?). If you want to maintain your supply, you will indeed have to pump. If I were you, I'd plan on pumping right before boarding the plane, and then only once while on the plane, and then immediately after getting off of the plane (and before flight #2). Then, start it all over again on flight #2. Ask the flight attendants to help you find a bit of private space. Worst case, do it at your seat, but with a blanket over you.

As for saving the milk, I'd probably just dump it. It pains me to say that, but I really don't think you'll safely be able to preserve the milk until you return.

If you religiously keep up your pumping, your supply should bounce back fairly soon when you return.

Good luck! You can do it!!!