The Best Way to Ship Your Breast Milk Home

This post is sponsored by Milk Expressed, but all opinions are my own.

Two weeks ago, I went on my first trip away since Ella was born – to Orlando for BlogHer and to spend a few days with my Moms Without Answers girls. I was excited for the trip and time get some time away, and Chris was 100% behind me and ready for him to go. I got everything packed and ready, but as a nursing and pumping mom, I had to figure out an extra piece of the puzzle – how was I going to get my milk home?

There is almost nothing that made me more nervous about my trip than maintaining my milk supply and making sure I’d be able to replenish my freezer stash. To be quite honest, when I booked the trip, I wasn’t sure I would make it this long nursing. Once we did, I started feverishly researching ways to get breast milk home when you’re away, and I came across an answer – Milk Expressed.

Milk Expressed is an easy way to take all the work out of getting your pumped milk home while you travel. You can read the details here, but simply put, you get a ready to ship insulated box sent straight to your hotel, which includes milk storage bags (the Lasinoh ones, which are what I use on a regular basis), a Nanocool cooling unit, and an overnight shipping label.

I used a one-day shipping kit, which holds up to 30 ounces of milk. When I arrived at the hotel on Thursday, my kit had already arrived, and I was able to just pick it up from the hotel’s shipping center. I then pumped as usual and stored my milk in the provided bags with a maximum of 6 ounces per bag. On Friday afternoon, I packed up the shipment of milk to send home. I carefully placed all 5 bags inside, then activated the Nanocool unit, which keeps your milk cold for up to 72 hours. I then sealed it and dropped it back off at the hotel shipping center. It was a little nerve-wracking to drop my milk off like that, but off it went.

My husband was actually going to be running around on Saturday, so I opted to send it to my sister to accept since I knew she would be home. I was planning on tracking the progress of my milk, but before I got a chance to even peek at the tracking, I got a text from my sister at 10:30 on Saturday morning – my milk had already arrived, was perfectly cold, and she’d already put it in the freezer. I could not believe how easy it all was. My milk made if from Florida to Virginia overnight, with no crazy runs for dry ice or anything like that. It was incredibly simple and made my trip so much easier. I don’t anticipate another trip away while I’m still nursing, but if I was, I would absolutely use Milk Expressed again!

Do you travel for work? I’d love to hear how you manage getting your milk home and what you think of Milk Expressed!