Photo by: www.hitormissphoto.com
Sandra McGee
Frisco, TX
I was counting down the final weeks of my first pregnancy when my son Nathan arrived four weeks early due to low amniotic fluid levels. I always intended to breastfeed, but the early delivery made me really nervous and prompted me to begin pumping right away after Nathan was born.
Photo by: www.hitormissphoto.com
We are lucky that Nathan did not need to spend time in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. The only problem we encountered was that he wasn’t able to nurse well his first two weeks. This meant that he had a hard time making an air-tight seal while breastfeeding, so he couldn’t effectively suck and swallow my breastmilk.
My lactation consultant introduced us to a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) that we filled with my own already-pumped breastmilk. After two weeks, Nathan was able to successfully nurse without the SNS.
Three months after I had Nathan I returned to work as an IT Project Manager, continuing to pump while at work. I am proud that I surpassed my goal of breastfeeding Nathan for six months. He actually nursed until he was 10 months old, and then took bottles full of my breastmilk from the stash we stored in our freezer.
Two years later when my second son Henry was born we had no latching issues at all; however I again immediately started pumping, knowing how important it was as a working mom to build up a good stash before returning to work. Going back to work after three months I discovered I had too much of a stash in our freezer and started researching where I could donate the excess milk. An online search led me to the Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas.
Pumping at work and traveling while pumping
When I was in the office, I was lucky enough to have a door with a lock. My nearby office mates would know that I pumped behind the closed, locked door. If a co-worker didn’t take that locked door as a signal to return at another time, then members of my team would let that person know they should check back in 10 minutes or so.
I also pumped when traveling for work. If I could, then I would pump at the airport before the plane took off. But if it was a long flight, I would warn the flight attendant as to what I was doing and that I’d need 20 minutes in the airplane lavatory. I’ve done this a number of times, continuing to pump even throughout the turbulence!
Shipping pumped milk from the hotel back to the Milk Bank
The Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas always made it very easy to pump and ship my milk back directly to Texas from my hotel. I’d simply tell Simone at the Milk Bank my hotel information, and she’d make sure a pre-addressed cooler was waiting for me, one with pre-paid shipping that shipped my milk directly from the hotel back to the Milk Bank. This way I never had to carry my breastmilk with me or try to take it through security at the airports.
Donating 3,500 ounces of breastmilk
After we donated the last of our milk to the Milk Bank, and my husband had his deep freezer back, I learned that by becoming a milk donor I’d continued in the steps of my 96-year old grandmother. A mother of seven kids in Holland, my grandmother was known to share her breastmilk with moms who needed milk for their babies. What a blessing it's been for me to be able to share in this experience with her and give to those in need.