It was my 4th year as a faculty member and I had a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old. This was going to be my longest trip away from my baby thus far (4 days) for a work trip. I was headed to the west coast — San Diego — for a conference where I was scheduled to give a talk. I was looking forward to the opportunity to do some networking, learn from the other sessions, and get some sleep in the hotel room with no middle of the night feedings and sleep disturbances. I was still breastfeeding so I would need the usual supplies for my trip: breast pump, cooler, ice packs, pump parts, etc.

But, I was a pro at this (second child)! I had traveled on average 1-2 times/month when my daughter was young, so this would be no big deal…or so I thought! I should have known better.

First, the flight was nearly 5 hours so I had to pump on the airplane. Where to pump when sitting in the middle of two other male strangers? Well, I had thought of this, of course. I had borrowed a friend’s battery adapter, knowing I wouldn’t have a place to plug in to pump in the airplane bathroom. So I pumped in the bathroom, being extremely careful not to expose any of the pump parts or milk to anything in the disgusting bathroom.

Hope we don’t hit too much turbulence while I’m pumping next to this…

I had packed some ice packs so I could store the milk on ice until I got to the hotel, where I had made sure I had a fridge in the room that I could turn the temperature down cool enough to save the milk for an extended period of time to save my liquid gold.

Pump seemed to work okay, but for some reason I didn’t get quite the amount of milk I was expecting. Oh well - may be the stress of pumping in the airplane bathroom perhaps?

When I got back to my hotel room, where I was really looking forward to just pumping and going to sleep (ahh, sleep!!!) I tried pumping again and got a VERY small amount of milk. At this point I was feeling a tad uncomfortable. I figured I maybe had a couple of clogged ducts. I did what I could to relieve what I thought were the clogged ducts but it was late and I needed to get some sleep.

I woke in the morning in agony. With the crappy pump in the evening and no middle of the night feeding I was in a lot of pain. I tried pumping again and NOTHING. Yet my breasts were as hard as a rock and I felt like I was DYING. I realized then that there must be broken parts to my pump. I had previously had this problem when the medela membranes had small tears and no longer worked. That must be it!! I had five hours until my talk. I started calling all of the local drugstores to see if they had the pump part so I could get this taken care of as soon as possible. After phoning several and visiting two, I realized NO ONE HAD THESE PUMP PARTS!

Finally I found a Walmart. It was nearly 9 miles away but it was the closest place I could find with these pump parts. My talk was now in <2 hours. I had little time to lose here! I quickly hopped into a cab (along with my pump so I could go to a bathroom to pump as soon as I got to the convention center to speak, or perhaps pump in the back of the cab?!) and made the cab driver wait outside of Walmart for me while I ran inside to buy the parts. Thankfully I had phoned ahead and they were being held for me up front. I quickly checked out, and ran go the cab. I had 45 minutes until my session started. I sent a quick email to the organizer to let them know there was a chance I may be running late to our session but that I would be there as quickly as possible.

I had the cab driver drop me off at the convention center and after paying FIFTY DOLLARS (!!) for that ride, I RAN into the mothers room at the conference. The conference was pretty large and pretty progressive — there was a designated bathroom with a room off of the bathrooms for pumping! I immediately plugged in. Started pumping. And….very…little…milk. NOOOO! It was like the whole pump was on super low power and I just could not get it to have enough pressure. THE MEMBRANES WERE NOT THE PROBLEM. My pump was just broken. I was ALMOST in tears. My session started in 10 minutes. I didn’t know what to do. I was 100% CERTAIN I would be leaking as I got up on stage to present to the room of 200+ people on the talk that I had hoped to have the morning to prepare for but clearly had other things to worry about.

There were 2 other women in that room pumping who seemed to feel bad for me (but not that bad that they actually lent me their pump or pump parts; they had different pump brands) but one offered to post on her local moms groups, and then I also hastily wrote this note and taped it with post-it notes on the mirror for the other pumping moms to see.

I then RAN down the hall to the speaker ready room to quickly upload my unrehearsed talk. AND I MADE IT. ON TIME. To my talk for >200 people. That I had not rehearsed.

I swear, I was almost desperate enough at the start of my talk to announce to the whole room: “Does anyone have a breast pump I can borrow? Or, a hungry baby? Really either would do the trick right now??” but miraculously I made it through my ~30 minute talk. Yes, I was leaking milk and yes I was in pain.

I sat down and happened to sit next to another speaker in the session who was a female and who happened to mention in small chat that she had RECENTLY HAD A BABY. OMG (!!). I asked her if she had a breast pump and can I please borrow it immediately after the session? AND SHE SAID YES!! SHE SAID YES!!!

After that session I went back to her hotel room, she handed me her pump, and I pumped in GLORIUS ECSTASY for 25 minutes, filling bottles and bottles of milk.

This amazing woman who I would be indebted to forever for saving my life lent her pump to me again later that day but she was flying out of town the next morning and so I would be on my own. She said she never traveled without a hand pump, and that she would leave that with me. I DID NOT EVEN KNOW A HAND PUMP WAS A THING. But I took it and figured it out. It was slow and inefficient but omg I was never going to travel a single day without one ever again.

And, then the most amazing thing also happened. I got a text message from someone who had seen my note. Some woman named Rebecca sent me a message. She had a friend who had a pump she wasn’t using and she was wiling to HAND deliver it to me by dropping it at my hotel front desk. Oh, the humanity! My belief in humanity was so strong.

This amazing woman who I shall call “Rebecca San Diego Pump” as I have her forever saved in my phone, is my savior. She dropped off a pump to me at my hotel and then picked it up after I left for the week. She was a perfect stranger. Who knew nothing about me. But she was a mother. It’s a special club that unites us - it doesn’t matter where you are from, what language you speak, or whether you know a thing about the other person. You both get the desperation of the situation because you are a mom. I will never forget the generosity and kindness I was so thankful to experience that week in San Diego by the two women who stepped up to help me (and my boobs) so much.