Adventures in Breastfeeding: my public pumping quest

by Sarah Gilbert (Subscribe to Sarah Gilbert's posts) Feb 7th 2006 10:36PM

Categories: Babies, Pregnancy & Birth, Money & Work, Education

my very un-sexy yet torrid affair with a breast pump

On Saturday, I went to a coaching clinic at a high school about 75 miles from Portland. We drove through wide, flat fields and small towns to reach Monmouth, Oregon's Central High School. We sat in uncomfortable classroom chairs and I learned about shotput and discus drills to teach my athletes.

About 11 a.m., my breastfeeding alarms were going off. By noon, I was in such distress that I was longing for the squeaky squish-squish of the manual breast pump sitting in the bag near my feet.

So I went up to the guy in charge, thinking to myself, this should be good. "I'm a breastfeeding mama," I told him. "Is there anywhere I can pump?"

While I think I did make him uncomfortable, he held up very well. I was impressed. He looked a little panicked for only the briefest of seconds, then went around letting the clinic leaders know where the lunch could be. He walked me down the hall to the science classroom, which had a little lab supply area between two classrooms that was relatively secluded. As secluded as you can be when you have five doors that open to other rooms, two of which are wide open (to locked rooms, but still...).

I decided it would work. "Do you need..." he said, leaving it hanging. "Nothing! I just need to be able to secure the door!" I said. He found me a chair and left me, so I set my things down on the cabinet crowded with science books and magnifying glasses and bottles of solution of various sorts and got ready to pump.

I was very near the hallway, and wondered if the other coaches walking to and fro could hear the strange whoosh-squeak-whoosh-squeak of my pump. Oh well. I flipped open my phone to the photo of Truman to get the juices flowing (literally) and pumped a couple of ounces.

As I walked out of the room, propping the door back open, I felt so clandestine, as if I was having some torrid affair with my milk-garnering device. A few hours later, I did another session, this time without escort. I secured my four ounces of milk in my bag and felt so proud. I negotiated a strange environment with success, I juggled my part-time work and my kids, and most importantly: I got milk.

Comments (10)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Whitney 2-08-2006 @ 12:48AM

Sarah, I hope you'll see fit to contribute to The Pumping Project: http://www.rookiemoms.com/the-pumping-project. If you took a picture, we'd love to have it.

Amanda 2-08-2006 @ 8:41AM

Pumping is one of the weirdest parts of motherhood for me but it does make me feel proud to be able to do something for her when I'm at work. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't know you can pump when you return to work (or if for somer eason your baby can't latch) so I think it is great to normalize pumping as best as we can.

i contributed to the Rookie Moms project! I hope that's ok!

Kim 2-08-2006 @ 9:03AM

Been there! I was at a large convention center and asked where I might find a place to pump. I was told "bathrooms" but all the handicapped stalls have outlets. I walked at leave five miles and checked seven bathrooms, only to find no outlets. The EMTs let me use a curtained area in their space every few hours for three days. Those guys were my heros. I was also glad my Pump In Style could almost pass for a big purse. If only they put a space for my laptop in that bag....

Mary 2-08-2006 @ 9:18AM

Mine was battery-operated, so no worries about outlets. However, battery-operated ones are louder, and they sound just like *other* battery operated devices a woman might feel the need of... Not being at all squeamish about such things, I found it hysterically funny. However, I do remember coming out of a stall one day, and making a point of plonking the device, with milk-bottle nicely filled, down on the counter, just to respond silently to those quizzical looks I was getting! LOL

Bonnie 2-08-2006 @ 10:10AM

Oh, this makes me flash back to bringing my Pump In Style to jury duty. Of course, I ended up being selected for a panel, and needed to pump during the break before the trial began. No outlet in the ladies' room, grrr. I had to go back and ask the bailiff for assistance and he was visibly panicked. He passed me off to some female admins, who walked me around from room to room before parking me right back in a conference room across from the courtroom. By now, 15 minutes of our allotted 30 for the break has elapsed. In the end, it was successful, albeit stressful. Shouldn't "lactating" be an acceptable reason for jury exemption??

Mary 2-08-2006 @ 12:16PM

Lactating as an exemption from jury duty: isn't it already? Wouldn't it fall under the "family demand" category (or whatever it's called - the one you use if you have a handicapped child or very ill spouse). Seems reasonable to me.

Heather 2-08-2006 @ 12:23PM

I can relate to you torrid affair feeling. I pump three times a day at work and it is like I have a secret little relationship going with my pump in style. Just the two of us, secluded away, filling the bottles. It is a little weird because as an ex-smoker, I get almost the same feeling when fixing my "works" as I did preparing to smoke - like a guilty little pleasure.

sarah gilbert 2-08-2006 @ 12:29PM

Yes, in some states, breastfeeding *is* an exemption from jury duty - I've used it twice! every state has their own rules, though, some vastly more progressive (Oregon, where I live now) than others (Virginia, where I once lived).

Zach 2-08-2006 @ 1:30PM

There's no reason not to use a handicap stall. The handicapped, in general, don't expect to have a free stall waiting for them 24/7 (no special treatment, please) just that one exists. They don't mind waiting in line, like everybody else, when they need to. Ann Landers (or was it Dear Abby) made the mistake of telling her readers to never use handicapped stalls unless they were handicapped. She got absolutely clobbered by handicapped groups who wrote in telling her that they aren't so delicate that they can't wait for the potty like everyone else!

Kate 2-08-2006 @ 2:46PM

I used to pump at work and it was anything but clandestine. I pumped in a stall in the ladies room (which was gross because I don't think it had been mopped or dusted in 6 years and I often had to eat my lunch at the same time, so double gross). My battery operated pump was so loud and the bathroom so echo-y that everyone in the office could hear it. And the bathroom window was ususally open so I bet all of the customers outside could hear it too. When we had board members or donors in they would be all "what is that noise?" Its really funny looking back on it, but at the time I was so embarrassed.

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