Graceful Parenting in Austin

I’m pretty sure Moms are Super Heros and Marvel comics will discover this soon and make a series of summer blockbuster movies along with action figures and McDonald’s Happy Meal deals. I was thinking of this today, because I heard one of my favorite Super Mom stories ever…

Can you imagine if you saw a woman who was breast pumping both breasts while wearing one of those hands-free-breast-pumping-bras - as she drove down the freeway?

Oh, my, you might be thinking. We have taken multi-tasking way too far.

But hear me out.

Monica was 7 months pregnant when her family moved from Austin to San Antonio, about an hour and a half away. She drove back to Austin for one last OB appointment before tranferring to a San Antonio doctor and the news wasn’t good. She was admitted to the hospital right away and Avery Rhett (oops!) was born soon after.

So, she is in an Austin hospital and her new baby is in the Austin NICU, and she doesn’t live in Austin. She also has a husband and two young boys in San Antonio to take care of. She stays with friends every other night in Austin and drives back to San Antonio every other day.

NICU Moms get very personal and familiar with their breast pump. Babies born early don’t have the sucking reflex, so can’t feed directly from the breast. The Mom needs to pump to stimulate the breasts so they will produce milk and the Mom needs to produce milk so it can be fed to the baby through a feeding tube. The shared experience between Mom, plastic parts and a suction pump happens every three hours around the clock.

So, in addition to recovering from a traumatic birth and caring for her baby in the NICU and driving between San Antonio and Austin and caring for her two boys and husband, she has to find time to pump eight times a day.

Monica bought one of the hands-free pumping bras that holds the pump flanges in places so you can have your hands free. (I’ve seen this bra in the store with a picture of a woman CEO doing business while pumping, which I thought was kind of funny.) She would get the bra and pump setup, turn on the pump and get on the freeway, hoping people in tall vehicles don’t look to close and she doesn’t get pulled over by the cops.

Monica is a Super Hero if there ever was one. I don’t know what the movie would be rated (R, I suppose, if FaceBook gets to decide) and the movie studio would want to glamorize it some (maybe pumping while flying?), but I would be there on opening day.