Pumping While Traveling for Work: A Survival Guide for Working Moms

ByJennifer

Working from home has its perks—especially when you’re trying to keep up with breastfeeding and pumping. I’ve been lucky to have the flexibility to take breaks when I need to, without the stress of finding a private room or rushing between meetings.

But twice a year, things shift. I trade my home setup for a week at our Mountain View office. The whole team flies in—from New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, SoCal—you name it. It’s a fun, jam-packed week of workshops, dinners, games (yes, including laser tag and ping-pong), and just generally catching up in person.

Now here’s where it gets fun:

I’ve got a six-month-old, Huntington, who’s been exclusively breastfed since day one. Breast milk is supposed to be this magical stuff, right? Full of all the good things to help babies grow and stay healthy. But let’s be real—pumping, breastfeeding, parenting in general—it’s not always smooth sailing.

At home, I’ve got a decent rhythm going. Baby’s at daycare, I squeeze in pump sessions between calls.

But heading out on a week-long work trip 1-hour flight away? That was a whole different ballgame.

I had to figure out how to keep up with pumping, store the milk, deal with reimbursements, and somehow ship it all back home. It was… a journey.

My Normal Breastfeeding and Pumping Routine During The Work Week

During my 9-to-5 grind, Huntington hangs out with his sister, Serena, and his cousin, Zoey, at daycare, while I juggle remote work and pump breaks (avoiding mastitis is high on my agenda). Picture this: I kickstart my day by feeding Huntington in the morning before daycare drop-off, then set up my laptop at a local coffee shop till noon, dash home for a lunch break (and another round of pumping, of course), and then wrap up my workday from the comfort of my own home. After driving to pick them up from daycare, it’s back to breastfeeding baby again and once before bedtime. Weekends? Well, that’s 100% breastfeeding for me (plus a Haka pump to collect more milk for daycare).

Why should I even pump when traveling without the baby?

Isn’t traveling alone without the kids supposed to be fun? Why do I have to pump when I travel?

  • Avoid engorgement: If you’re breastfeeding or pumping on a daily basis, skipping those sessions could lead to the dreaded engorgement – trust me, nobody wants rock-hard boobs or the looming threat of mastitis! (However, if your little one is happily munching on solids or formula or drinking cow’s milk and you’re not pumping often, you might be able to dodge this. Let’s be real. Pumping is a chore.)
  • Maintain your milk supply: Maintaining your milk supply is like a delicate dance of supply and demand. Skip too many pumping sessions, and your milk supply might just dry up faster than you can say “more milk, please!” If you want to keep feeding your baby breastmilk after you come home, then you gotta pump!
  • Make nutritious food for your baby: Your baby needs milk! Pumping allows you to make nutritious food that is building up your baby’s immune system even when you’re away. (Although if your baby already has a full freezer stash of milk or drinks formula or cow’s milk, you can always pump and dump and not worry about the logistics of bringing the milk home. From my perspective though, it takes me so much time that I would be too sad to waste my precious liquid gold.)

Logistics of Pumping On a Work Trip

Where do I pump? Does work have a mother’s room?

Does the office have a place I can pump breast milk? Will I need to pump in the bathroom or my car?

Ask your workplace about a “mother’s room” (aka “nursing room” or “parent’s room”).

Many companies have a lactation accommodation policy.

California’s lactation accommodation policy requires companies with 50 employees or more to have a private space that is clean and private for their employees to pump. Companies with less employees should try their best to accommodate as well if they can’t prove undue hardship. If you don’t live in California, I’d encourage searching for a lactation accommodation policy for the state or country in which you live in.

In my case, I knew Atlassian had a “parent’s room” to allow for pumping milk and feeding baby. I was so grateful that the company was thoughtful and inclusive enough to setup a room like this for their employees.

The parent’s room had everything I needed, including:

What kind of breast pump do I bring?

Should I bring a double electric pump? A wearable pump? A manual pump? Or a combination of these?

I recommend a wearable pump if you have one (I have Elvie pumps) or a double electric pump with hands-free nursing bra.

Before packing, I knew the Atlassian’s Mountain View office had a hospital-grade Medela Symphony breast pump, so I carried my Medela pump parts (2 flanges, 2 connectors, 2 valves, and 4 bottles) and a hands-free pumping bra to work with me in my backpack. For pumping outside of work (at the hotel), I brought a single Medela manual breast pump for one side and Haaka pump to catch the letdown on the other side because the manual pumps are extremely light and because my sister raved about how she could get out all the milk with a manual pump in 5 minutes. Well, that wasn’t really my experience with it. It took me about 20-25 minutes every time AND I had to hold it and look down…ahh my shoulders and neck need a massage now.

If I could pack again, I would bring a double electric pump with a hands-free nursing bra (I have 2 of these), so I can be hands free and type out another blog post or doom scroll through my Instagram feed. A wearable pump (a pump that doesn’t have wires or require you to plug into a wall) would also be perfect for a trip. I have 2 Elvie electric pumps, which I didn’t bring because I find the boat-shape a pain to wash, but now I really wish I brought them because they’re lighter than other electric pumps AND hands-free.

When do I pump?

Should I pump before or after work? Should I pump before or after meetings? Should I pump during lunch?

Review the calendar and look for breaks that are half-hour or longer to pump. This could be before or after meetings or even during meetings (if your team uses video calls for meetings). Otherwise, you could also use lunch and/or before or after work.

Although the labor laws for lactation and breastfeeding change from state-to-state and country-to-country, the general consensus is that you’re entitled to legal breaks to express milk for your baby during work hours.

When I go on these work trips, we’re bombarded with meetings. Since we work remotely, and it’s rare for the team to get together, once we do have the chance to get together, we have workshop after workshop, strategy planning, ice breakers, one-on-ones, lunches together, dinners, you name it, we do it. There is very short windows of focus time or down time, so I have to be very intentional about setting aside time to pump. If you’re a nursing mom, then pumping is crucial to your own well-being (if your breasts are engorged, it’s very hard to work, collaborate, and be nice to your co-workers) and your baby’s health (you’re literally making food for baby!), so don’t put it on the backburner. Make it a priority.

Before each day, I review the calendar and look for breaks that are half-hour or longer to pump. It usually takes me between 20-40 minutes to assemble the pump parts, pump the milk, clean the pump parts, label (name, date, amount) the storage bags, put milk in the storage bags, and put the milk storage bags in the fridge.

My pumping schedule on the work trip

Typically, during this work trip, I’ve been pumping 4 times a day, once in the morning before I leave the hotel, once at the office close to 12pm, once around 5pm before I leave the office, and once again before bed time. This schedule allows me to feel comfortable at all the meetings and at dinner with colleagues and friends. However, your frequency of pumping can vary (it might not be like mine) since it’ll depend on your frequency of pumping and feeding when you’re at home. Try to match your schedule at home as close as you can. On my first work trip when my first baby was around 1.5 years old, I breastfed significantly less (probably only at night on the weekdays) and didn’t pump during the work day anymore, so when I went to the work trip, I only needed to pump once or twice a day max.

Although I’d love to be spending these precious minutes during lunch with my team, sometimes I’ll pump during lunch if it’s the only break that is 30 minutes or longer. Other times, I’ll leave a meeting room, go into the parent’s room, and hop on the Zoom call (with camera turned off), especially since the majority of our meetings are made for both in-person and remote participants.

Pro-tip: If you’re pumping during a Zoom call, physically cover your laptop camera just in case your finger stumbles on the camera button…I definitely don’t want to show the work team my goodies. I’ve used post-it note or a disposable nursing pad to cover my web camera on my laptop.

Where do I store my breast milk while I’m traveling?

Does the hotel room come with a refrigerator so I can store the breast milk? Does the office have a refrigerator to store milk in after I pump at work?

Store your breast milk in the freezer if you can since it lasts 6-12 months. If you can’t, then store your breast milk in a refrigerator for up to 4 days.

The parent’s room had a small refrigerator, the kind you would see in hotels. My hotel also had a small refrigerator in the room. One thing I don’t like about these is that they don’t have a freezer, and breast milk should only be stored a maximum of 4 days in the fridge while lasting 6-12 months in the freezer. Luckily, work had a regular refrigerator with a freezer as well. Even though my work trip was 4 full days, I placed my breast milk inside of a Packit bag with built-in ice packs, which I put directly into the freezer, so it could last longer, because I planned to bring it to my son’s daycare much later than 4 days. Breast milk also won’t be inspected by TSA if it’s fully frozen.

How do I get my breast milk home?

These are 2 options to bring your breast milk back safely for baby.

  1. Fly home with my breast milk stored in a cooler with frozen ice packs
  2. Ship my milk home through a shipping service

Option #1: Fly home with my breast milk stored in a cooler with frozen ice packs

Because I had a freezer stash of breast milk at home with Huntington, enough to last the full 4 days of my trip, I decided to buy a cooler with ice packs, and bring the milk back with me when I flew home. There was no urgency for me to ship milk home sooner.

Under my company’s lactation accommodation policy, I knew Atlassian would reimburse for “reasonable costs” for sending milk home (though even if they didn’t cover it, I would have still gotten it). I took my search for a cooler to Amazon and found something even “cooler” (haha get it?). It was the Packit bag on Amazon. Unlike traditional coolers, this gem came with built-in ice packs, making it a game-changer. No more lugging around extra freezer packs! I placed the bag with my milk storage bags into the freezer, gracefully preserving my liquid gold stash and hiding the milk from public eye in the freezer at the office kitchen.

Tips for flying with breast milk
  • The TSA only allows 3.4-ounce containers of liquid or gel that can fit inside a one-quart bag. Luckily, expressed milk is exempt from the TSA liquid and gel regulations.
  • You can bring as much breast milk and formula as your baby needs.
  • Ice packs and freezer packs used to transport breast milk are also exempt.
  • Let security know that you are transporting breast milk.
  • If you can, try to bring frozen milk instead of liquid (fresh or cold milk) or else it can be tested. However, even if it is tested, it’s not a big deal and doesn’t take too long. They will just wipe on the outside and will never open the bags or put anything inside to contaminate it.
  • If you bring your breast milk in a cooler with an ice pack, you want to transport it for less than 24 hours and put the breast milk bags in the refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible when you get home.

Option #2: Ship my milk home through a shipping service

I would consider shipping my breast milk home if I didn’t have enough of milk supply at home for my baby to last the entire trip. I’ve personally never used this option, but I read about some options.

When shipping milk home, you need to consider:

  1. Storage of the milk in cold storage boxes (insulated box with freezer packs)
  2. Shipping the insulated box home with your breast milk
Shipping Services To Ship Your Breast Milk
  • FedEx – has both storage and shipping
  • Milk Stork – has both storage and shipping
  • UPS – does not have cold storage boxes so you would have to buy elsewhere and then use UPS to ship

Will work pay for storing and shipping breast milk?

Many companies, including Atlassian, have a lactation accommodation policy. What’s that? Yea my first time hearing about it too. The short answer is: most likely yes, they will pay for reasonable costs to package and ship your breast milk if you’re on an approved business trip. However, this can vary from company to company, so best to ask your company directly.

Lactation Accommodation Policy

This is Atlassian’s Lactation Accommodations policy:

  • In general, an employee who is breastfeeding a child will be provided reasonable break times to express breast milk for her baby.
  • Employees that need to express milk during an approved business trip, may submit reasonable costs incurred to ship their milk home for reimbursement as a travel expense.

There are local ordinances that detail labor laws related to breastfeeding, and lactation accommodation differ across different states and different countries, which I encourage you to search for online in your own locale.

California’s Policy on Lactation Accommodation

These are key points for California’s lactation accommodation policy:

  • Your employer has to provide an employee with additional break time to express breast milk.
  • Your employer must provide you with the use of a room or other location, other than a bathroom, in close proximity to your work area, shielded from view, and free from intrusion while you are expressing milk in private.
    • It should include a clean surface to place a breast pump and personal items, contain a place to sit and have access to electrical outlets or extension cords to operate an electric or battery-powered breast pump.
    • It should also include a sink with running water and a refrigerator suitable for storing milk, in close proximity to the employee’s workspace.
  • Your employer cannot require you to submit any documentation regarding your need to express breast milk.
  • If your employer has less than 50 employees, they may be exempt from the lactations requirements if the company meets certain conditions.

To-Do Checklist For A Pumping Mom On A Work Trip

  • Ask the hotel if they have a refrigerator in the room. If they don’t have one, request a refrigerator for breast milk. They’ll usually accommodate this. If they don’t, see if you can book somewhere else.
  • Ask your work if there is a mother’s room (also called nursing room or parent’s room) at the office.
  • Ask about your work’s lactation accommodation policy.
    • Will they reimburse you if you buy a cooler and freezer packs to transport your milk? You can also bring this from home if you have this already.
    • Will they pay for you to ship your milk? This may include buying the shipping box with insulated gel freezer packs to last 48 hours in transit and the shipping of the milk (if you don’t have an excess milk supply to cover the number of days you are away, you may want to consider shipping your milk home).
  • Schedule your pumping sessions in the calendar.
  • Setup and discuss who will watch the kids – partner, grandparent, aunties, uncles, or mixture of? All hands on deck! Mama is leaving!
  • Facetime or video call the kiddos every day when you’re away.

Packing List For a Pumping Mom

If you’re a pumping mama traveling, then you’ll need:

  • your breast pump and necessary pump parts (typically 2 flanges, 2 connectors, 2 valves, and 2 bottles) (I recommend either bringing a double electric pump or a wearable pump)
  • 4 bottles (I usually bring 2 extra, so you can switch off between 2 sets of bottles and combine milk if you’re storing at specific amounts…I store each bag at 120-150ml)
  • hands-free pumping bra for your double electric pump or nursing bra for your wearable pump (don’t forget this!)
  • waterproof bag to hold your pump accessories – I just use a gallon-size Ziplock bag
  • breast pump cleaning supplies like sanitizing wipes or sanitizer spray
  • milk storage bags to store your breast milk safely
  • marker to write the name, date, and amount on milk storage bags
  • small cooler and freezer pack to store the milk in transit (whether it’s when you are traveling to and from home or from hotel or office to car)
    • I purchased this cooler with built-in ice pack (don’t have to pack extra freezer packs) since I was storing about 15 milk bags from 4 full days on the work trip. If you’re doing less than 10 bags, I’d recommend getting a smaller cooler size of a Packit bag.
  • nursing pads for your bra, so you don’t leak milk onto your shirt

What about you?

Have you traveled before without a breastfed baby? If so, please leave comments below to share your own tips with us or ways that you do things that we can learn from. If you know someone that is about to go on a work trip without their young baby, please share!

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