An Indiana woman claims that she was "humiliated" when a flight attendant prevented her from using her breast pump on an American Airlines flight.
Dawn Brahos, 38, claims that the female flight attendant told her that she couldn't use her breast pump on a flight to Chicago on April 18. Brahos explained that she was allowed to use the pump on two other American flights the week before, but the flight attendant called her a liar, The New York Daily News reports.
"It was humiliating. She kept saying I had to be mistaken, that it must have been a different airline," Brahos said.
"She was loud and cold and argumentative," Brahos recalled. "At least a third of the plane knew my business. I could see them talking amongst themselves."
American confirmed that they do allowe breastfeeding mothers to use Medela-brand pumps on flights. They offered an apology to Brahos.
"We apologize for the experience Ms. Brahos had on a recent flight. Our in-flight personnel are trained to handle these situations with professionalism and discretion. American does not have a policy prohibiting the use of breast pumps in-flight," American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said.
Huguely says that Brahos shouldn't have had a problem as she would be able to plug the Medela pump into an outlet at her seat. Any other type of pump would have required prior approval.
Brahos accepted the apology but she hopes American Airlines does more. She hopes they improve their training and make their policy more clear.
"Pumping is already awkward and uncomfortable enough without having to worry about the individual discretion of whoever happens to be working that day," she said. "The rules have to be clear. It's not like you can fight with a flight attendant these days."
Brahos took the proper steps to ensure that she would be able to use her pump on board before she booked the flight, but she got different answers from four different reservations agents before she was told that the Medela pump would be okay to use.
During her first flight from Chicago to San Diego on April 13, she pumped under a blanket and no one noticed. On the second flight on April 17, she said that the flight attendants were very helpful and even allowed her to use a galley outlet to pump two different times when the flight circled over O'Hare airport and was diverted to Minneapolis.
American even set Brahos and her husband up in a hotel overnight when bad weather hit and their flight was canceled. American set them up on another flight to Chicago the next day. She received backlash for pumping on the Minneapolis-to-Chicago flight.
"I started it off being quiet and discreet, but the flight attendant wasn't discreet at all. She came back three times to my seat and was really loud about it. She was like, 'You absolutely cannot pump,'" Brahos said.
"She was just dismissing any possibility of me resolving my situation. She got angry with me and then wasn't willing to give me her name," she recalled.
Brahos said she pumps every three and a half hours and she hadn't pumped in a while before the flight as she was busy checking out of the hotel, getting into the airport, checking in and going through security screenings.
Breast pumping helps to relieve her from pressure which causes her pain.
"I really hope they improve training and get everyone on the same page. And I'd love to see their policy in black and white on their website, so moms can print it up and travel with it," she said. "It's important that this doesn't happen to other moms down the road."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
