Commentary by Heather Kestian
I recently had to travel for work, which meant I had to be away from the relative newborn for an extended period of time. With this opportunity to travel came the dreaded requirement to solely pump little one’s food. I did all the research to make sure I could bring his food back on the airplane with me and learned how to declare it with the screeners at the airport.
I do not know a single soul who enjoys pumping breastmilk. In fact, I think it is psychologically impossible to enjoy this task. It is even harder to want to do this while traveling when told that the only place you can pump is – the bathroom.
Seriously? The bathroom? Do you make your food in the bathroom? Would you want someone else to make your food in the bathroom?
It is 2015, can an airport add a quiet, breastfeeding-friendly place for moms who travel for work? The answer to this last question was, apparently, no. But when nature calls, you tend to answer, so off I went to the family bathroom as suggested. I thought I would simply throw away the milk. As I tucked myself in the bathroom, I figured out there was no electricity. Super!
Doing the calculations in my head of when I would arrive at my destination, I figured, what’s another two or three hours? Anyone who has ever pumped knows the humor in that last question. For my male friends, imagine having a slow leak of some bodily fluid that you cannot take care of for two or three hours.
Having arrived at my final destination hours later, I went to check into the hotel. No rooms were available. I was convinced that God was really laughing now. I decided to ask the very kind gentleman at the front desk if he had any room, a closet maybe, that I could use as I kindly explained my situation. He asked how old my child was and he said he was a new dad, too. His wife recently went back to work so he knew how important this was to me. Within 15 minutes, he had me checked into my hotel room.
I firmly believe that the health of our society is measured by how well we treat our children and families. I will always make every effort to support new moms and dads. I challenge everyone to do the same.
