After a few minutes...

Oh, I so doubt this. I'm seeing a queue waiting for half an hour. And the kid wasn't even there!

If you want to reserve seats ahead of time I can see paying for the privilage. Why couldnt they wait until boarded and then ask the one person in the row with dad and kid if he would trade with his wife a few rows up who is currently nursing and needs help occasionally.

I'd jump bat the chance to not have to sit next to a four year old

Ltw,

Without a kid to nurse, if the woman's breast fill up with milk, she really does need to pump.

Now, one could nurse (some kids, not all) discretely on a plane seat, but there really isn't a way to pump discretely as far as I've been able to determine. The parts that attach to the body are usually clear so you can see if they're positioned correctly. It's a 2-hand operation, so you can't really position a blanket over yourself... and you can't just fit them under your shirt. Then there's undoing it at the end... wow I'm really not missing pumping as I think about this.

Given TSA, my guess is she probably had a small portable pump - so it'd probably only do one side at a time. A high-quality electric pump would be a minimum of about 5 min per side, but this is a plane, so no outlets. Probably 5-7 min per side for a manual one most likely. More than that would exhaust most people working a manual, and an electric wouldn't need that much time (if they had a battery of some sort).

After about 7 minutes, I think people would start wondering.

I would guess people didn't know that's what she was doing. It'd be easy enough to carry a pump in discretely - they often have a case for carrying them (some look like backpacks).

If you tie up the lavatory for any reason--vomiting, diarrhea, other personal issues--flight attendants will still get on the intercom and tell you to get out. My brother was in a lav on Southwest puking his guts out, and you could hear what was going on, and they kept asking the passenger who was holding up the restroom to get out.

I've thought to myself that someone who went in there alone and hasn't come out after five minutes is probably dealing with an urgent, embarrassing issue. They don't seem to know or care. Policy is to try to shame them out.

Why does this shit never happen to me?

I'd love to be pukeing(not the puking part) and ordered out by pissy FA's to puke all over the florr next to where they sit

I always sit next to my wife when we fly. You can reserve/change seats as soon as you buy your tickets, or anytime after. We generally book tickets months before we fly (expensive international flights - often over holidays) so it isn't a problem. I would never trust the airline to assign me a seat - it is probably on that I wouldn't want.

"I've thought to myself that someone who went in there alone and hasn't come out after five minutes is probably dealing with an urgent, embarrassing issue. They don't seem to know or care. Policy is to try to shame them out."

On the other hand, the guy waiting in line might be about 30 seconds away from having an attack of diarrhea all over the airplane floor. That trumps someone else's need to breastpump, dry heave, or pretty much anything else you can do in a bathroom. When you have 100+ people sharing 2 small bathrooms I doubt they're making these announcements gratituously.

She can pump those breasts while sitting next to me as lomg as I can watch.

> Breastfeeding is not sexy. In fact, I think
> it's kind of beautiful.

Y'know, there, Amerz... We can't just announce what's sexy and not, as if the (often erratic or distasteful) responses of others will align accordingly. Football is boring, ballet is mundane, country is unlistenable. I know these things to be true in my heartest of hearts, OK?

But people tell me I'm wrong, and the whole world works better when I let them indulge their weirdness by turning my head rather than telling them their behavior is demented.

(But Jesus Christ, it's just sick.)

Also, it's weird that you'd contrast "sexy" with "beautiful". "In fact!"

Tits, OK?

If other people think exposed breasts are provocative or erotic or distressing or whatever, you don't get to tell them they're wrong.

Well, you can tell them that if you want, but you're not going to tits their feelings about anything.

With each year of life, I grow ever-more grateful for America's inexplicable and often perverse ideas about The Dairy.

She needed help to nurse? I've flown on a plane with a nursing infant and had no problems whatsoever, let alone needed someone to help me. Button front shirt and a nursing bra allow for easy, discreet nursing on a plane, and baby was already in my lap. I was not asked to cover up, go to the bathroom, or anything else. I didn't require special accommodations. I don't understand why this lady had such a problem.

> they often have a case for carrying them (some
> look like backpacks).

Does the TSA handle such machinery with taste and discretion?

Without a kid to nurse, if the woman's breast fill up with milk, she really does need to pump.

I considered that angle Shannon, but I'm not buying it. Maybe a bit of planning before the flight was in order? Or, assuming a rush to the airport, and God knows I've done that enough times, a quiet word to the cabin staff beforehand might have been nice. Perhaps they could have found an alternative to tying up the bathroom.

It's inconsiderate, plain and simple.

She needed help to nurse?

Also, this. Her husband had to sit a few rows away? Inconvenient and annoying, but hardly the end of the world.

I have a standard line for this sort of prima donna - "Go away, get a real problem, then get back to me".

I can testify from first-hand experience that one can pump on a plane without tying up a bathroom for an inordinate amount of time AND without flashing your fellow passengers. In addition to a functioning lactational system, you need:

*A Medela Freestyle pump (or, if you can find one, another battery-powered double electric pump that's small enough to hook onto your waistband and allow you to walk around)

*A pumping bra that will hold the pump paraphernalia in place around your, erm, milk-producing outlets

*A nursing/pumping-friendly top, such as a button-down blouse

*A nursing cover that covers you from neck to waist, preferably in a discreet color such as black

*A jacket/sweater/etc.

Take all this with you to the bathroom of the aircraft. Unbutton shirt, set up pumping equipment, hook pump to waistband. Get pump going and ensure everything's working okay. Put on nursing cover; put on jacket. Walk out of bathroom. When done, reverse process. (In a pinch, you can wait to do so until you're off the plane.)

Did anyone suspect I was pumping? I'm sure they did. But the noise of the plane drowned out the sound of the pump, and no one could see my chest. If anyone figured out what I was doing and had weird sexual fantasies about it...eh, they didn't say anything, so who cares? Speaking of which...

Does the TSA handle such machinery with taste and discretion?

They have with me. Breast pumps aren't terribly interesting/sexy when they're not attached to anything. Also, I've never even had trouble with being able to carry on ice packs, or, for that matter, breast milk itself (there's a machine in which they pop containers of breast milk that somehow scans it for...whatever, but given that the containers remain firmly closed, no contamination takes place). It's been a pleasant surprise. Others might have different stories.

Is pumping on a plane ideal? Well, I figured that it was kinder to my fellow passengers than bringing on my babies would be. And yes...at some point, you either *have* to pump, or feel as though you're going to explode. (Going too long without nursing/pumping also causes a lactating woman to risk mastitis, which is a nasty condition best avoided if possible.)

Anyway, that's my long-winded way of saying that my sympathy is with the airline, rather than with the woman who was tying up a bathroom for longer than usual on a crowded plane. The Freestyle has been out for a few years, and any woman doing a modicum of research can find out about it. (Bonus points if she manages to order it through the Amazon.com affiliate link of her favorite blogging advice columnist.) I also don't think it's out of the question for women to take steps to nurse or pump discreetly.

Yeah, some of us can't use the bras. In fact, those of us not well endowed don't have an easy time pumping, period. To get a seal on the cups I had to sit, hunched over so that my boobs actually pointed at the ground. And while small boobs can make as much milk as big ones, they can't store as much. Meaning we have to pump more often. Many of my fellow little-uns moms and I had to do every 2 hours to get enough to keep the kids (twins) fed.

But personally, I would have just done it in my seat. If I can negotiate to buy a car while BFing, I can fly while pumping.

Why is it asking too much to expect people to plan their pottying accordingly on flights, too? Diarhhea isn't that common to be a problem on most flights, and the rest of us can potty before we go or wait for most flights in the US.

Diarhhea isn't that common to be a problem on most flights, and the rest of us can potty before we go or wait for most flights in the US. -- momof4 at August 25, 2012 9:09 PM

I'm old enough that I carry Imodium in my backpack along with aspirin and Sudafed.

The issue on the wait to go potty is not clear cut. I typically have to switch flights from a big bird to a smaller one to get home. I was coming out of L.A. and had to switch in Chicago. The flight into Chicago had a slightly delayed departure and the landing was delayed by weather in Chicago. I literally walked off the big bird and was standing in the boarding line that was half way done for the smaller bird. There was no chance to get to the can and I had two beers in me.

The flight out was flying through turbulence. They kept the seat belt sign on for a long time. By the time they turned off the seat belt sign I almost had a very wet seat cushion.

So yes, you can hold it to a certain point -- but the human body is going to function at some point.

After reading these comments... I am s-o-o-o-o-o thankful I'm a man.

I would have agreed that some before-hand planning would work... if not for TSA. Just for a 1-hour flight, I would have to get the car all set, drive to the airport park, go through security, board, and take the 1-hour flight, disembark, get any luggage, get where I'm going. That's about 3 hours right there, unless my destination is the airport I landed at or a hotel right next door. Now, imagine a 3-hour flight.

Also, babies nurse as often as every few hours (my eldest went through a phase for 3 weeks where it was Every. Single. Hour. Grew like crazy though). Your body adjusts. By 4 months, some kids are like clockwork and the body adjusts to that (4:15, open the flood gates - baby or not!).

Also, many women will fill with milk (or just start lactating) if they see or hear a baby. So, that infant who cries the first 10 minutes of the flight when the cabin pressure changes might just make a well-planned trip go haywire.

I'm not saying the airline was wrong. I'm just saying that maybe we don't have to jump down people's throats.

I DO agree that saying something to the flight crew would have been a good idea (hence my comment that people probably didn't know and the equipment is often discretely packaged).

I'm sure TSA isn't good with pumps N stuff (at least sometimes) which is why I'm also sure most nursing moms would take a small hand-pump - also it wouldn't tie up a whole personal-item carry-on. Of course, all this stuff is expensive, so I'd bet a lot of women just take whatever they have and can't go buy something new...

As for nursing - I couldn't do it in public AT ALL. My son adamantly refused to be covered by any thing. He wanted to look around and wiggle - even at 2 days old. I would have needed my husband's help to keep me from feeling exposed.

So, just because it was possible for one person, doesn't mean it's possible for another.

Also, just because it doesn't bother some people to see boobage while a woman nurses her baby, that doesn't mean all nursing moms are ok with others seeing their boobs. Sure, giving birth means a whole bunch of complete strangers might see rather private parts of your body, but at least they are barred from taking pictures and do this every day! In this day of cameras in everyone's pockets, I understand if somebody would want to take every precaution to cover up. Who wants to try and feed their baby only to have a momentary bit of boobage end up on YouTube???

Amy,

Am I mistaken? I thought one could only get an IUD after having a child.

Well, clearly my "health" class back in the mid 90's was useful. Guess it doesn't matter since I've got kids and all, but gosh isn't science neat?

I wonder if the stents that are made entirely of slow-disolving medicine ever came to fruition (the idea being that plaques grow over stents, and the patients take the medicine, but now it's going to sit right where the blockages build up. If they have to put another one in, they won't have narrowed the space.

Lordy am I ever a nerd...

If a doctor insits you have a child first just lie and say you already have one, or claim both you and your husband carry the gene for cystic fibrosis

lujlp,

I have 2 kids, so it's not really an issue for me. I thought it had something to do with either getting it in (cervix opening size or something) or risk of spontaneous ejection. Then again, I'm not a doctor, but that's what I heard... probably in health class in high school.

I have personal experience nursing my daughter on a plane. I was evacuated from Japan after the March 11th Tsunami, along with my 4 week old daughter. Since my husband is active duty Army, he stayed behind to help with the recovery efforts.
Once I landed state side I was transfered from a military flight to Alaska airlines. I was nursing my daughter right after take off to calm and quite her, when the man sitting next to me me loudly proclaimed "Oh HELL NO!" and retrieved the FA to "tell me to stick a bottle in the kids mouth". The FA politely let the man know that she would not interfere with my feeding my child and quickly reassigned the gentle man to another seat.
I had an extra seat to spread out for the flight, and the man didn't need to sit near a lactating mother, win-win. I was all alone for an international trip, it can be done with out help.