Dawn Brahos, a 38-year old mom of three, says that she was mortified on a recent flight when a female American Airlines flight attendant forbade her from using a breast pump.
Brahos says that the attendant called her a liar when the Indiana mom explained that she had been allowed to use her Medelabreast pump on two American Airlines flights the week before.
"I started it off being quiet and discreet, but theflight attendant wasn't discreet at all," Brahos told the Daily News. "She came back three times to my seat and was really loud about it. She was like, 'You absolutely cannot pump."
"She was just dismissing any possibility of me resolving my situation," she added. "She got angry with me and then wasn't willing to give me her name."
Brahos, who typically breast-feeds her 1-year old son Adrien, was on a rare trip alone with her husband. She says that she was dependent on the pump to maintain the flow of her milk supply and to ease painful pressure.
Brahos received an apology from Andrea Huguely, an American Airlines spokeswoman who said that moms are in fact allowed to plug in Medela pumps while in-flight.
"We apologize for the experience Ms. Brahos had on a recent flight," said Huguely according to theDaily News. "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."
Brahos was grateful for the apology, but would like American to publish their policy on their website so that moms can print it out and take it with them.
"Pumping is already awkward and uncomfortable enough without having to worry about the individual discretion of whoever happens to be working that day," Brahos told the Daily News. "The rules have to be clear. It's not like you can fight with a flight attendant these days." LINK
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