How I traveled for work and fed my baby (with a little help)

I took a work trip and left my breastfed baby for the first time. The separation anxiety grew as I counted down the days until my departure date. I did everything a new mom would: Overplanned, overcommunicated, and overanalyzed every detail of leaving my 5-month-old for two days.

So, broken-hearted, I left my baby overnight for the first time. At first it was fine, and then excruciating… and then I had to pump.

While boarding the plane, I could feel the tingle in my chest. It was an alarm – better yet, a countdown to a milk-soaked shirt. I grabbed the breast pump that I carried on the plane, turned to go to the restroom, and my soul sank. How was I supposed to pump in the bathroom? There was hardly room for me, let alone all my equipment.

“Do you need to pump? You can come back here,” said a flight attendant in the back of the plane. She told me her sister breastfeeds, and the bathroom in the plane was too dirty. So, while the plane taxied, I pumped in privacy and exchanged pleasantries with Brenda.

Board the flight. Pump. Take a meeting. Pump. Every three hours, I found a way to sneak away with my soft-sided lunch cooler, unpack my breast pump, and do what had to be done to feed my son. It felt like a marathon and it was kicking my ass.

All the while, I worried about how he was doing at home and sent messages asking how much milk we had left in the freezer.

When it was time to go home, I had a cooler full of milk to restock the freezer. But I had to get the milk through airport TSA agents before I could do that, which was surprisingly easy. I nervously told the female agent, “Please use fresh gloves. My breast milk is in there,” I watched her face immediately soften. She, like the flight attendant, understood my new-mom anxiety. She opened the cooler and sent me off to board the flight.

When I got home, my fiancé said we had just run out of milk. I handed him the cooler and took our son in my arms.

Sharlene Birdsong is a new mom who is a little bit crunchy and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll. You can reach her at sharlene.birdsong@mirrorindy.org.