Last weekend I attended a conference on big data. It was hosted by a local university and promoted through the grad program I’m attending. I was excited to go and network with classmates, especially since it was reasonably priced and on a Saturday. (I hate using up my PTO!) I realized about 2 days beforehand that attending a conference was suddenly not as simple as it might have been six months ago.

You see, a conference on big data doesn’t exactly cater to nursing moms. (For some reason, we’re not the target demographic. Go figure.) Now, I know the law states that companies with more than 100 employees have to provide a location for moms to use, and while it would be awesome if that extended to events with more than 100 people, it’s not something I’d expect. Even I will admit, pumping never would have entered my mind as a consideration when planning an event until very recently, and I bet it’s probably not even on the radar for the people who coordinated this one. (One of my friends attended “Mommy Con” the same day, which is probably the only exception.) I brought an insulated lunch sack with an ice pack and a manual pump, and figured I’d probably be pumping in a bathroom stall. No problem, I can handle this!

While I anticipated the lack of pleasant accommodations, I have to say, I didn’t count on the lack of breaks. I mean, wouldn’t everyone benefit from a 15 minute break every 3 hours? Especially considering the prolific availability of bottled water all day! (Kudos to them on that, though.) I ended up skipping question & answer sessions and missing half my lunch. Even when the one afternoon session offered a 15 minute break, I spent 5 of it trying to find the restroom on that floor.

Lesson learned- Next time, review the schedule ASAP and determine when to pump… and then show up early and scout out restrooms near every room so you don’t waste time looking when minutes count.

Oh, and if you’re the one planning the event, well, you’d have the gratitude of nursing moms everywhere if we even crossed your mind.