Moms Need Places to Pump Milk in Airports

Milk leaking through the shirt. Painful, throbbing breasts. An infection requiring antibiotics. Reduced milk supply. Babies that stop breastfeeding too early. These are all things that can happen if women are not able to express their milk every few hours.

As a working mom of an 11-month-old baby, I know firsthand how stressful it is to travel without my son. Not only do I have to carry a big bag filled with all of the necessary pumping supplies and ice packs to keep the expressed milk cold, I also have to find a clean, secure place to pump. And that's not usually very easy.

In a recent survey of 100 airports, 62% considered themselves to be "breast-feeding friendly." But only 8% had a clean, private place for women to pump with a chair and outlet. And out of those 8%, many of them placed their lactation rooms outside of security. That means in the vast majority of airports, women are forced to express their milk with a hand pump while sitting on a toilet or hooking up their electric pump where everyone else charges their phones.

All airports still have places where people can go to smoke. And yet they don't feel it is necessary to provide places for women to express their milk. That is just plain ridiculous.

And hopefully we can make that change. Thanks to Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is also a working mom, a section was added to the Senate's Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2017 that would require all major airports to install lactation facilities in every terminal by 2019.

Unfortunately that piece of legislation never got passed. Which is why Senator Duckworth re-introduced it as the bipartisan Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act this past Mother's Day. If we can get this legislation passed this year, it would change the lives of countless traveling moms.


So please sign this petition demanding that Congress pass the Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act requiring mothers' rooms at airports.

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