No, My Breast Milk Is Not a Bomb

Had someone asked me when I started my first job what I thought would be the greatest challenge for a female professional, I probably would have popped out some big-concept answer: gender equality, equal pay, or work-life balance. During the 18 years since, I have generally thrived as a scholar in the think-tank world. I’ve had difficult times—raising every penny to support research projects, dealing with a hostile research field in China, breaking an ankle and hopping around Burma on crutches—but nothing seemed out of reach or likely to defeat me.

Or so I thought before I became a breastfeeding mother. I can now say with confidence that traveling internationally with pumped breast milk has been the greatest challenge of my working career.

If you want to bring the liquid gold that is your breast milk back to your baby—whom you, guilt-laden, left with your husband when you flew off on business—you’ll face drama and ordeals beyond your wildest imaginings. Not every mother can, or wants, to breastfeed, but that’s what I think