Expressing yourself

The NY Times has a front page article today on moms pumping milk at work.  The point is that there's a disparity between higher income working moms who have more acceptance and employer support at work and moms in lower income jobs who get little support.  Starbucks has both sides: corporate moms who get a lactation room with a pump and barista moms who get short breaks and, at best, a cramped public restroom.

I'm really glad they also ran the short accompanying piece on the new airplane regulations.  The rule of not being allowed to carry pumped milk on the plane really pisses me off.  For me, every drop of breastmilk was precious.  When any needed to be chucked from the freezer or if, diety forbid, any spilled it was traumatic.   It's not a feeling I can easily explain if you don't get it... maybe you have to experience what it's like to be the sole supplier of what is keeping your baby alive (and in our case we had a dairy and probable soy allergy, plus he was so allergic to milk protein his skin test for the hypoallergenic formula was positive, so I really was it -- no formula, plus I was on a very restricted diet so I was sacrificing to get my milk allergy-free).

These articles brought back memories from not so long ago.  And a bucket full of emotions.