How I pumped 20oz of milk during a day out multipitch rock climbing.
- Adventure Mamma
- Jul 18, 2020
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 23, 2020
When my baby was three months old I left him for the first time and went for a day rock climbing outdoors. I used a breast pump multiple times to produce 20oz of milk despite going up and down a cliff face all day, far from any electrical outlets for 12 hours. You could use this approach for many outdoor activities like hiking, mountain biking or ski touring.
Sharing in the hopes this information is useful for others looking to do something similar!
How to adventure while pumping for your baby
1) Get the right pump. I bought a Willow - a chargeable electric pump that has no tubes. I had a Spectra on my health insurance but with the flanges and tubes I wouldn't feel comfortable using it in public and it wouldn't be possible to use it outdoors. The Willow is a total game changer. Once charged it is good for five pumps. And the reason this is such a great pump for adventuring is that it has two types of milk receptacle: a container you then pour into bottles and pre-sealed storage bags. These bags are perfect for being on the go because they mean no transferring milk to bottles. Anyone who has gone out and about with bottles knows they can leak and transferring milk from one container takes time and opens the possibility for spills. An alternative could be a manual pump, but it would be less efficient and less private.
UPDATE: Since writing this, Willow gave me a special code. To get $50 off a Willow pump you can use this link.
2) Get good pumping skills. Practice with the pump you'll use and get familiar with it and its idiosyncrasies. Don't just use it at home, but in a variety of inconvenient locations where you are on the go and not in an ideal situation. E.g. try placing your pump as a passenger in the car! I found the Willow to have a steep learning curve and would not have had success using it on an adventure unless I had got used to it beforehand. Towards the end of the day I was very tired and dealing with the pump could have felt overwhelming if I hadn't been very used to using it.
3) Get a great cooler. You won't want to waste your precious milk! I was climbing on an 85F degree day and used a Yeti Daytrip Lunch Box with a 1lb ice block to store the milk bags and used pump parts in. I was careful to leave it in the shade and it kept the milk cool for the 12 hours I needed until I got home. It was also just big enough to fit my lunch in too, alongside the pump parts. I already had a Yeti Hopper but that is far too large to take in a backpack. The lunch box even has loops on the outside so that I was able to clip it to my pack with a carabiner for easy access once we'd set up at the foot of a climb.
4) Wear the right bra. You need a bra that you can be active and comfortable in but will be a good fit for your pump. For the Willow, this means it has to sit high on the chest and be bigger than you'd usually buy to accommodate the size of the pump. If you are doing a high impact activity this may be a tricky balance. In that case you may want to double up bras or have an additional nursing tank top with a built in bra for added support. I bought this low cost Gratlin bra with a racerback in a very large size to accommodate the Willow and it has worked well for leisure and low impact activities.
5) Fly under the radar (if you like). Those 20 year old guys working a route to my right may have been a bit taken aback if I had got my boobs out and attached a regular pump. And I personally wouldn't have been comfortable doing that. But with the Willow, I could set it up and then move to a quiet spot (in this case, facing a corner in the rock so people can only see my back) and slip the pump into my bra. Then I could go belay my climbing partner up a route while the pump worked its magic. You could even do low impact activity with the pump attached, like hiking. At lunchtime a local rock climbing guide was clearly wondering what was going on as a soft whirring emanated from me as I sat on my pack eating my sandwich while pumping!
That's it! Each pump setup only took about 4 minutes: find a low key spot, put the milk bag in the flange, attach it to my breast, attach the white pump and then repeat for the other side. Leave the Willow to do its thing for the next 25 mins. Then I needed another couple of mins to take the pump off and put the bags, now full of milk, into the cooler. You can leave the Willow on for longer than 25 minutes if it's inconvenient to remove it as soon as it finishes.
Finally, here are some tips for making things run smoothly:
Manage your expectations. Set your expectations low versus what you'd usually be doing in the outdoors. You've just had a baby, your body is in recovery and you're learning a whole new way of managing motherhood and adventure. Ease in gently and ramp up from there.
Go with an understanding friend. That first time I was worried about how it would all work out. In future I'd be comfortable adventuring with anyone, but it was reassuring to go with an understanding woman I knew when I was experimenting the first time. You may want to manage their expectations beforehand about needing to pause your activity every few hours, if there isn't a natural rest point during the day.
Have a plan B. What if your electric pump won't work? You need a system to get that milk released or you will be uncomfortable at best. I took a Haaka just in case my Willow didn't work out. My Haaka doesn't have a lid so I took an empty bottle for the milk in case I needed to use this method.
Wear easy-access clothing. Think beyond your bra when you're planning what to wear. I had a tank top layered over with a thin t-shirt. That way I could pull up my t-shirt and place the Willow in my bra without baring my bra/stomach and also having the pump totally hidden from view while I was using it once I pulled my t-shirt back down. Make sure all your clothes are stretchy so you can move them around easily. Finally, the Willow has a Dolly Parton effect so I went for black to make it less noticeable.
Chill. The Willow has a mobile app, which can be useful for flagging if there's a malfunction in the setup. During one of the pumping sessions I only realized at the end that one of the pumps had not moved from 'stimulation' to 'expression' mode and therefore had only got a little milk. If I'd have been looking at the app then I'd have realized. But I wanted to enjoy being in nature and not check my phone. All good - there was just more on that side next time around.
Plan ahead. I pumped while I drove that last 20 min to the cliff (pulling over to set it up). That way when I arrived I was free to climb for the first three hours before I had to worry about pumping again. When my climbing partner suggested a multi-pitch trad climb to start with, I could say yes without any concerns that I could be on the wall for a couple of hours without any of my pumping gear.
Minimize contamination. You know I mentioned earlier about storing pump parts in the cooler? That's important. You need to keep them bacteria free since you can't wash them in between. I took these quick clean pump wipes as a back-up but in retrospect the key part of the Willow that is getting milk inside is the Flextubes, and they're too small to clean with wipes.
Don't be intimidated by the season! I will try this approach in winter when I go ice climbing or cross-country skiing. I will need top layers with zips, a good cooler to insulate the equipment and stop the Flextubes from freezing one they have milk in them, and I'll put the Willow in my bra for a while before using it in order to warm it up to a reasonable temperature. I'll also be careful about not having the milk freeze and thaw and refreeze.
I was a little anxious about being away from civilization for a full day in the outdoors while pumping multiple times for my baby, but it worked out great! So much so that I didn't feel the urge to rush back to civilization and went for a wild swim to cool off after climbing. I say go for it, and if something goes off-course then it'll just be another adventure. I'd love to hear from you about your tips for pumping in the great outdoors and if you try this and how it works for you!
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