Woman Who Has to Pump in an Airport Bathroom Is Shamed by Another Mom

Any mom who is a frequent flyer and currently breastfeeding or pumping milk is faced with Mission Impossible on the norm. It’s no secret that airports are notorious for having not so great, if any at all, nursing spaces for women. One mom had no choice but to pump in one of the public bathrooms, and even there someone had something to say about it. The experience was shared on the Facebook group Breastfeeding Mama Talk, where the anonymous woman voices her frustrations and explains why she refused to apologize.

"Today, I had to pump in an airport bathroom. It’s something I’ve had to do multiple times since I returned to work a few months ago, because often our airports are either not equipped or very ill-equipped to support clean spaces to breastfeed,” the mom explains.

During this instance, the airport she was in only had one lactation room. Since there were already three women waiting ahead of her and she had business meetings to get to, the woman decided to head to the bathroom instead. Once she found an outlet and set up camp, she kept her self covered with her cardigan and started to pump. It wasn’t long before a fellow mom took offense to her actions.

“A woman shielded her young son from me and said ‘you know there’s a space for that next door.’ I wish I would have had a witty response to her, but I just snapped back and said I didn’t have time to wait,” she says. “I hadn’t pumped in six hours and I had a full day of client meetings ahead of me with scarce opportunities to break for a pumping session. For once in my life, I did not apologize.”

The experience left a bad taste in the mom’s mouth. “She shielded her son as if I was doing something wrong,” the mom comments. “She basically reprimanded me for pumping in the women’s restroom, for fear that her son may see a portion of my nipples. Why is nursing or pumping being sexualized?”

Unfortunately, the way the mother reacted in front of her son sends the wrong message to him. “That could be a teachable moment for a child, even if you don’t say a word while you’re in the bathroom and say something to them after you leave,” the pumping mom reflects. “But instead, I was made to feel shameful, that revealing a piece of my body—in an utterly nonsexual way—is scandalous.

If fellow moms can’t support each other on their motherhood journeys, than who will? It’s up to women to lift each other up, and set the example for others to follow suit.

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