I am an ER doctor in NYC that has chosen to keep pumping through COVID. I will preface this by saying breastfeeding/pumping is such a personal choice, this is what I have decided to do and hope it can be helpful to others. 

A few weeks ago, when we all began to feel the sense of impending doom with COVID I heavily debated sending my 7-month-old son and husband away. However, after spending a few days agonizing over every bit of minimal research there is available, I realized this crisis was going to be indefinite, so we made the decision to stay together.  I then decided that I wanted to continue nursing and pumping with the idea that I could transfer antibodies to my son if at some point I get COVID. With that, my cleaning/pumping regimen was taken to a whole new level of obsessive. These are the steps I have taken to make me feel comfortable pumping at work. 

  • My supply, of course, tanked at the beginning of this so I went from my Willow back to my Spectra which still gets me the best milk supply. However, I love that the Willow is a closed system that pumps directly into bags and I still use that intermittently. 
  • I take two pump breaks in a 10-hour shift. These are my “take off my PPE/don’t think about COVID at all” breaks. I drink a TON of water and bring high carb snacks. I used to study during pumping session (I am a resident), but I now watch The Office and take a total mental break. I then use the bathroom prior to getting back into PPE. 
  • I switched to driving (I know this is not possible for some people) and now leave a bag with my Spectra inside of it in the car. This is exclusively my work pump and work bag. I don’t bring that bag inside the house.
  • I learned through this experience that through my insurance covers two pumps, so I was able to get a backup Spectra. Now I have one for home and one for work. This is definitely something worth looking into!
  • In my pump bag I have the following: 
    • Spectra 
    • Lansinoh bags 
    • Bleach wipes 
    • Hand sanitizer 
    • A wet dry bag (I ordered a bunch of cheaper ones online) 
    • Gloves 
    • Extra scrub tops 
  • I take off my PPE prior to entering room. 
  • I bring a bunch of hydrogen peroxide wipes with me for backup.
  • I wash my hands prior to entering, use gloves to open the door, take off my shirt to avoid any kind of shedding from my clothes onto the table, I wipe the table down with a hydrogen peroxide/bleach wipe. 
  • I take off dirty gloves, hand sanitize, put on new gloves. Then I set up a staging mat on the clean surface. I also wipe down this staging mat.
  • I take off dirty gloves, hand and arm sanitize, (there’s no sink in space I use) get out my pumps (pre-assembled) and put pumps on.
  • While pumping I have a snack and use my phone. I then consider my hands dirty.
  • When I’m finished pumping, I use hand sanitizer, put on new clean gloves.
  • I take off the pumps. 
  • I take off dirty gloves, hand sanitize, and apply new gloves for milk transfer. 
  • To avoid having to transfer milk, you can use Maymom adapters to pump directly into the bag. However, at the time of writing this I have not received mine yet so I can’t truly comment on it! If you are still transferring, I think this is the most critical step where I try to ensure I have the milk bag opened with one clean gloved hand and use the other hand on outside of pump bottles to empty the milk into bag. 
  • I wipe down outside of bottles and exposed portions of flanges with a hydrogen peroxide/bleach wipe. 
  • I put on a new scrub top. 
  • After my last pump, I wipe down Spectra cording and plug with hydrogen peroxide/bleach.
  • I pump twice at work, so I have been putting my parts in the fridge in between uses but have also considered just bringing two sets of parts. 
  • I have returned to sterilizing all my parts daily (had previously stopped when my baby was about 3 months).
  • I wash the wet dry bag daily in the laundry 

Inevitably, I touch something when I think I’m clean and agonize over it, or I look back and wonder if I sanitized enough, but overall I try to be gentle on myself, keep as clean as possible, obsess over hand hygiene and focus on the antibodies I’m hopefully providing my baby.