(this one's much nicer than the bathroom I pumped in)
The other day, I pumped milk in a public restroom. I was out of my normal routine, and there was no one to ask for better accommodations within a reasonable timeframe.
My choices were either the bathroom or the industrial kitchen, sitting on the cold cement floor in the dark, or skip pumping and become engorged. The bathroom was a single stall, with an electrical outlet, toilet with a tank and closing lid, and a cement floor. I chose to pump in the bathroom, and I will never do it again.
Yet many women find the bathroom the only private place to pump milk at their workplace, like the woman in Ohio who was fired for her unscheduled pumping breaks (see the CNN video here, including discussion of using the restroom to pump). Before I tried it myself, I thought it would be unpleasant, but I didn’t realize how unsanitary it can be. Let me present to you my analysis of the disgusting details I hadn’t considered before I was faced with this experience myself.
Bathroom surfaces are filthy.
We all know about the aerosol effect of toilet flushing right? You may not see or feel it, but the contents of the toilet spray out with every flush. The little bacteria-laden droplets go airborne. Here is a quick video showing the spray out of a toilet bowl. It is safe to assume that all surfaces surrounding the toilet are coated with droplets of urine, fecal matter, and bacteria or mold present in the toilet bowl.
Pumping in the bathroom is a juggling act.
While pumping in my home or in the office, where I have plenty of clean space, I hardly think about this, but here are the dilemmas I went through in the bathroom at each step of pumping :
- Where to place the pump: The toilet in this particular bathroom had a tank with a level top, so that’s what I used, although it was small. Most public toilets don’t have this feature. Alternatives would be resting on the toilet paper rolls, or (if your pump has long tubing) on the floor. There’s no good option.
- Where to sit: This bathroom had a lid that covered the toilet bowl, so I closed it and sat on it. Most public restrooms don’t. You’d have to sit directly on the toilet seat. People pee on the toilet seat. Maybe you could stand up. I don’t know about your breast pump, but the tubing on mine won’t reach that far.
- Assembling the collection pieces: Between leaning forward to pull pieces from my pump bag, pressing the flanges into the connectors, turning around backward to plug everything into the pump, I found it difficult in this small space to assemble the pieces without brushing my arms or the tubing against some surface of the bathroom. And where do you set down the first side while assembling the second side?
- Where to set down the bottles/bags full of milk: At some point you have to set the bottles/bags down while you button up and pack everything away. In my office, I place the bottles full of milk on my clean desk until I’m ready to carry them to the refrigerator in the break room. In the restroom, I guess the best option is to put it in your lap and hope it doesn’t fall into the toilet or onto the floor.
Other mothers might experience it differently, depending on what kind of pump and case you have. Mine doesn’t have any special holders or compartments that helped with bathroom pumping.
It ties up the bathroom for others who need it.
Especially if there’s only a single-stall restroom available. A pumping session takes longer than your typical bathroom break, and it’s hard to rush. It’s awkward to walk out and face the other women lined up, waiting for you.
It’s unpleasant and uncomfortable.
This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but still, who wants to spend all their break time in the bathroom? It smells bad. It’s ugly. Whether pumping standing or sitting on the toilet, it’s hard to relax, which can inhibit the milk ejection reflex.
Sanitary lactation space should be a working mother’s right.
In many US states, it is a right. Several states have breastfeeding laws that require employers to provide facilities for pumping milk, “other than a toilet stall” which you can see in this compilation of state breastfeeding protection laws. Women should not have to pump in a bathroom to provide food for their babies. Some workplaces may not have the luxury of setting aside an entire room for pumping, but there must be some space that could be partitioned off when the pumping employee needs it. I have been in two offices that used cubicle dividers to create a small pumping room. The room I pumped in while on jury duty was actually a large closet adjacent to the restroom, and that worked fine.
If you are a mother who pumps milk in a bathroom, please don’t be offended. I commend you for enduring the unpleasant surroundings to provide the best food for your baby. I realize that, where there are no laws to mandate a designated pumping area, you might not have any choice. Maybe you’ve found a way to keep everything clean and you’ve got the routine down. But you should be entitled to a better space.
Moms, have you had to pump milk in a public bathroom? How did it work out for you?
How unpleasant, uncomfortable, and unsanitary! I am sorry for the women who have nowhere else to pump. I had to do it once, and I hopei never hve to again.
On a related note… this is the environment that many would prefer we breastfeed in. I have been told several times while feeding my son that I should feed him in the restroom because it is offensive to “expose myself”. I don’t understand why some people don’t seem to understand that a bathroom is not a suitable place to feed an infant… Or express the food for said infant.
I feel bad for the women who have to do that! I was asked by a NURSE once, at the hospital, to nurse my son in the bathroom. My mother was with me and she told the nurse to go eat her own lunch in the bathroom if she felt that strongly about it! Seriously…maybe if the CEOs were made to eat their lunches in dirty bathrooms they’d be more on the ball with getting proper pumping stations for women.
Yuck! I’ve never had to pump in a bathroom – thank god I have an office where I can close and lock the door and sit at my clean desk while I pump. Whenever I’ve been in a place where there’s no private sanitary place to pump, I’ve gone to my car to do it. But that’s only because I have tinted windows and my pump comes with a battery pack.
I really feel bad for women who have to pump in restrooms. Yuck!
How horrible! That makes me want to gag. I’ve never had to pump in a restroom. I was really spoiled back when I worked. Because I worked in a hospital boutique where we rented the pumps, we had a Medela Symphony right in our fitting room. There was a sink, outlet, table, comfortable rocking chair and a lock on the door. I got to use the pump for free, too, as all hospital employees there do, but it was right in the middle of my workplace. I could even lock the door of our shop if I needed to. There couldn’t be a better setup. I needed it because I don’t respond very well to pumps. I doubt I could get much milk if I were stressed by having to pump in a bathroom!
I think I have pumped everywhere imaginable but tried my best to stay away from restrooms. They were only a very last resort! If it had to be done I would just use the hand pump for a few minutes tucked under my shirt (this made me feel like it was cleaner) until I could get to my car or other acceptable place. My car was always stocked with towels to cover up and adaptor for my electric pump. I also had an extra supply of milk bags and a manual pump in the car “just in case.” I also carried an additional manual pump in my purse and was fortunate to work in a hospital with a wonderful pumping room. Most of my pumping issues arose from attending graduate school about an hour away from home and having class or 2-5 hours at a time. No one on the campus of 20,000 could tell me if and where someone could pump outside the hours of 8am to 4pm when the childcare center was open and available. So I just pumped in my car before class and tried to make it to the end (or ran for a quick pump in the ladies room) and get home to finish (I wasn’t comfortable pumping in my car at night after class). Most memerable pump was a rock concert – you should see how a big security guard blushes when you bring a breast pump into a concert and ask where you might use it. I just stood in a corner by the concession stand with my friend blocking me/assisting with bottles/lids and again tried to use my under the shirt while standing method. Since I was an exclusive pumper it was easy for me to pump most places with or without my daughter but I realize for some this would not get them relaxed enough to get the milk flowing.