Pumping on an 8hr flight & transporting them back
Hi guys! I recently went on a short trip to Sydney when I was at my 2month postpartum. As I’m an exclusive pumper, I was really thinking on the logistics of how should I be pumping on the flight and how should I bring back my milk🤣
Here’s what I brought to the plane:
1. Wearable pump
2. Cooler bottle (there are two bottles that comes with it. I pumped twice on the plane and stored them in the bottles)
3. Milk bag (suggest getting smaller ones rather than the big ones to fit into the cooler bottle)
4. Wet wipes (to sanitize my hands in case I couldn’t access the toilets)
5. Nipple wipes (to clean my nips before pumping - this helps esp when I’m out and on the go without any toilets)
6. Ziplock bags (to store my pumps after use and have the air stewardess to keep them in the chiller)
7. Permanent marker (to annotate my name on the ziplock bag)
8. Nipple butter/shield (for swollen nips)
9. Nursing cover (in case it gets inconvenient handling the pumps with people around)
❓How i pump on the plane:
• After my first pump, I stored the milk into Momcozy bottles cooler
• I kept the used pumps into a ziplock bag and asked the cabin crew to store them in the chiller for me
• I made sure to annotate on th ziplock bag my name and my seat number (to help identify my items betters)
• when it’s close to my second pump on the flight, I requested my pumps back and pumped for 30 mins
• once it’s done, I stored my milk in the cooler bottle again
❓how I kept my milk chilled throughout my trip:
• once I have arrived at the hotel, I got the hotel staff to freeze the ice blocks/rings (of my cooler bottle and cooler bags) into their freezer (I stored them in ziplock bags and annotate on it) - rmb to take a picture of it before handing over to the staff
• I transferred my milk from the cooler bottle to milk bags and placed them into my room’s chiller
• at the end of every night I will consolidate all my BM bags into a disposable plastic container and hand them over to the hotel staff to freeze (rmb to indicate the date, your name and hotel room number on the container itself)
• upon checking out, I requested for my frozen BM and ice blocks and packed them nicely into the cooler bags
• I made sure to placed my cooler bags (with my frozen BM) in my checked in luggage since it was quite heavy and I didn’t want to be carrying onto the flight + there was a limit to how much BM you can bring if you were to bring them as carry on)
• tada!! And that’s really it!
It is actually such a tedious process but all is worth it knowing that my BM is not wasted 😊
During my trip, I also learned how important it is to prevent leaks and discomfort during long flights when exclusively pumping. For example, using nipple butter and shields helped reduce swelling, which kept me more comfortable. If you’re worried about milk leakage during transport, I highly recommend using the right size milk bags that fit well into your cooler bottles. This reduces the chance of spills—something I paid attention to since I wanted to avoid wasting any milk. Another handy tip is labeling all your items clearly with your name, seat number, and dates before handing them over to the cabin crew or hotel staff. This made it easy to get back all my milk bags and pumping equipment without mix-ups. I also brought along wet wipes and nipple wipes for sanitation, especially since airplane bathrooms aren’t always convenient. This small step made pumping on the plane feel more hygienic and manageable. Lastly, consolidating your milk into a larger container overnight and coordinating with hotel staff to freeze everything properly can save you a lot of hassle. I found taking photos before handing over my items gave me extra peace of mind. Overall, while pumping on a flight involves many moving parts, being organized and prepared can make a big difference. I hope these practical insights help other pumping moms have a smoother travel experience!
hii!! wondering how you fill the jevon baby pump bags if you’re not using the jevon pump? i have so many of them as well and thinking if I should buy a funnel to fill them 🤭