Pumping Mommy: Basra Edition

I work in oil and gas - I try to avoid posting who my employer is on FB and IG for privacy reasons. My close friends all know who I work for, and anyone who wants to snoop can figure it out via LinkedIn. Anyway - my work assignment in Dubai is supporting projects in Iraq. When I took the assignment, I knew it included travel to Basra on an "as-needed" basis - to develop relationships with Iraqis that I work with, see the construction site, and backfill for my supervisor; maybe a once or twice per-quarter sort of thing. We found out we were pregnant two weeks after I accepted, and when I disclosed my pregnancy to my supervisor, he and the occupational health team decided to cancel my travel and keep me fully in Dubai.

Now that Baby L is a little older, we've established a great relationship with Miss J, and I've read dozens of articles on pumping while travelling, I felt ready to travel. I will note a list of the most helpful resources at the end of the post.

Travel in and around Basra requires quite a bit of security - so pumping on the go is not an option!

Questions that I needed answered before going!

1. Where can I store my milk while in Basra?
2. Where do I pump at the office in Basra?
3. What do I need to bring my milk home?
4. What is the itinerary for travelling in and out of country, and where are the best places to pump?

1 through 3 were pretty easy. My room at the camp had a ~4 cu. ft fridge with one of those little built-in freezer compartments, so I was able to store milk there. I laid the milk bags flat against the metal since that is the actual freezing element, and then once frozen I stored them vertically for more space.

All those happy little milk bags standing upright, and one little milk bag in front on its way to frozen happiness. Plus a chocolate bar for mommy. Because in Basra, mommy NEEDS chocolate!

The fridge also made a really great cleaning station for all my pump parts. Iraq is a dry country, so we are instructed not to carry in any alcohol products - and this includes hand sanitizers or alcohol wipes. Medela makes alcohol-free disinfecting wipes, which is perfect since I didn't want to wash my pump parts in the local water and I didn't have a microwave or electric kettle to heat up bottled water.

My tidy little pump parts cleaning station. Sometimes I wondered what the all-male housekeeping staff thought of me!

At the office, I found the ladies prayer room, and did my business there. It was private, much nicer than using the toilet area, and the ladies there were excited to see photos of my daughter. I think pumping is not a "thing" in Iraq, so they all thought I was little strange, but they seemed pretty accepting of what I was trying to accomplish.

At camp was easy. I just pumped in my room. Done.

If I were living in and taking a business trip in North America, I would have used a shipping service like Milk Stork to get my milk home, but that's a bit harder when crossing international lines, especially in the Middle East - so I was going to have to carry it in my checked luggage. To bring my milk home, I purchased a Pack-It lunchbox which is lined with freezable gel, and cooler-shock freezer packs.  I didn't know for sure that the refrigerator in my room actually worked, so I had planned to ask the camp boss to use the main kitchen freezer. I had fully prepared myself to have the awkward conversation about what was actually IN the lunchbox. Fortunately, since the mini freezer worked, I just sent my empty lunchbox and cooler packs to the kitchen freezer. Again, the all-male staff looked at me like I was strange, but didn't ask any questions.

Pack-It Brand lunch box and Cooler Shock Ice Pack

I also used zip-top bags instead of my normal Kiinde bags. The Kiinde bags are great, but they take up more room because of the twist cap. Since I was already lugging around my pump and all these cooler packs, I wanted to try to use as little space as possible, so the more traditional zip-top bag was the better option. They also allowed the milk to freezer faster since they lay flat and have more contact area with the freezer. I used Lanisoh because they were the cheapest in UAE, but Medela or any other zip-top brand would have been fine. My 16 bags of milk BARELY fit into the cooler with 2 icepacks, so I may need to come up with a different plan in the future if I'll be gone for more than 3 nights. Or maybe the extra frozen milk will keep everything cold enough that I can get away with just 1 ice pack. We'll see!

I brought 3 cooler packs with me, for a 3-night stay I only needed 2. For a 4-night stay, I'd probably only need 1.

The last question was the hardest. When can I pump while in transit? On the way in to Basra, the itinerary looks like this (note BAS is 1 hour behind UAE)

0545 UAE - arrive at airport

0715 UAE - board plane

0755 UAE - depart Dubai, 2 hour flight

0900 BAS - land, go to immigration for visa

1030 BAS - depart airport

1200 BAS - arrive at office

So the two primary places to pump were either at the airport or on the plane. Since I nursed Baby L just before leaving, I opted to pump on the plane. I dumped the 6 ounces that I pumped on the airplane so I wouldn't have any issues at the security checkpoints at the airport - in retrospect, I probably could have kept it.

On the way back to UAE, it was a little trickier, and the airplane was still the best option. There is a ladies prayer room at the airport, however there was no guarantee that there will be time to use it - between the office and the airport, we have to change vehicles once, and then we have 2 checkpoints that involve getting out of the vehicle, putting your bags through an x-ray, and getting patted down (for me in a private ladies area). Once at the airport, there are 2 more security checkpoints, one before and one after flight check-in. I knew once I landed in Dubai, I wouldn't want to stop and pump, I'd just wanted to get home, so I planned to pump on the plane.

1330 BAS - leave office for airport

1430 BAS - arrive airport

1545 BAS - board plane

1625 BAS - depart Basra, 2 hour flight

1915 UAE - arrive Dubai, go through immigration & customs

2030 UAE - arrive home

I had a little complication with my passport on the day we left - obtaining my exit visa took longer than expected, so I didn't get my passport back until 14:00, so the main transport group left without me so the other 10 people on the flight wouldn't be delayed because of me. Our logistics team arranged a private transport for me, but I still had to do all the security checkpoints. Plus I had to explain what my pump was at every check point. It involved a lot of pictures of my baby, pointing at my boobs and saying "milk". As soon as the male security guards figured it out, they looked incredibly embarrassed and let me through! If I wasn't in such a rush, I would have been more entertained by the whole situation.  Either way, I was glad I planned to pump on the plane.

Airplane pumping is definitely not glamorous. For such a short flight, as soon as the seatbelt sign is off, I run to the lavatory and set the pump on top of the toilet seat, and stand facing the pump (and the toilet) while I let the pump run. It only takes me about 15 minutes total, including setup and breakdown, but on an airplane, it's a long time to be in the lavatory! Plus, if it's a little bumpy, I basically get jostled around the grossest part of the plane. Baby L is old enough that I didn't worry to much about the germs, but it still grosses me out a little.

I also couldn't keep a very regimented schedule while away - I pumped when I could slip away from meetings or when I was very full and couldn't wait anymore. I'm very fortunate in that I have a pretty high storage capacity, so as long as I pumped until I was empty, I didn't see much drop in production - I brought home almost as much as Baby L consumed while I was away. The downside of my awesome milk production is that I had to wake up in the middle of the night to pump because I was super engorged and couldn't get back to sleep - so my hopes for full nights of rest while away were somewhat dashed.

Was it worth the extra bag for my pump, plus increasing my luggage requirements by 30% and all the extra anxiety? Not sure - if I didn't know that she hated formula so much, I probably would have just pumped and dumped. It would have saved a lot of hassle, as well as reduced my luggage by one bag. Either way, I'm glad that I did it, and similar to the author of my favorite book on this subject, I'll never question my ability to provide for my child!

Resources!

• Work. Pump. Repeat. by Jessica Shortall - a great book for working, pumping moms. It made me laugh and cry as I read it before going back to work. I went back to this book for tips just before I made the trip to Basra.
• Pumping on a Business Trip - from Moms in Tech Blog
• Shipping & Travelling with Milk - from Breastfeeding in Combat Boots Blog - the guide for packaging frozen breastmilk was my backup plan if my special lunch box and cooler packs hadn't arrived in time. Still a great resource.
• Milk Stork - for pumping moms in North America, this looks like an AWESOME SERVICE - unfortunately, they don't ship to Iraq 😀. I signed up for a beta to have them ship me a storage kit in Dubai, but haven't heard anything from them yet.
• Ladies I work with - I asked lots of questions of other women who travelled in an out of Basra for my company. They gave me tons of suggestions and advice for which I am so grateful!
• My supervisor. He was very supportive, he made what I thought would be very awkward conversations totally NOT awkward, and he let me expense my special lunch box and cooler packs (because I wouldn't have needed them if I wasn't travelling!!!).