Stop airlines charging women extra for travelling with expressed milk

1. Women who lactate can't conveniently 'switch off' the milk supply or simply throw it away. It is a biological fact that they will lactate and that they will need to be able to travel with milk.

Well, that's wrong for a start. I lactated, and travelled, and expressed in the shower (or toilet once when desperate) the only place I travelled with milk was in my boobs (or soaking into my t-shirt when unexpectedly delayed)

A man with a baby at home can leave formula to feed it, a woman can do the same. A breast feeding mother doesn't need to express and bring large amounts home. She may want to, but she doesn't need to. She can express before the trip, she can express during and bring hand-luggage amounts home etc.

I can't see this as discrimination. OP has to travel to do her freelance work - this freelance work makes breastfeeding tricky, as her own employer, she is responsible for dealing with this, not the airline. Her business should pay the €50 for a checked bag or whatever - and if her business can't do that, then her business can't afford to employ her to do her job. This isn't an airline discrimination problem, but an insufficiently profitable business problem.

OK - let's break this down. It isn't about whether dads with young babies can travel, or how people with FF babies are treated. It's about the absolute basic principle of discrimination.

1. Women who lactate can't conveniently 'switch off' the milk supply or simply throw it away. It is a biological fact that they will lactate and that they will need to be able to travel with milk.

1. there are certain 'protected characteristics' within law which it is illegal to discriminate against. Charging extra for providing a service counts as discrimination.

1. Anyone who has a protected characteristic is legally protected from this kind of discrimination. They are legally entitled to access services with reasonable accommodations being made for them. For a service provider, such as an airline, not to do this is breaking the law.

TBH - a petition shouldn't be needed. Anyone should be able to contact the relevant govt. departments and say 'this co. is breaking discrimination law. Please stop them'.

Airlines cannot charge someone for a reasonable accommodation under discrimination legislation. They're breaking the law. Anyone who wants to try and say it isn't 'reasonable' for a lactating woman to want to be able to carry milk on a flight would have to prove that it was so truly inconvenient that it affects the business's ability to operate, or that women could somehow 'choose' when to lactate or not. The onus, btw, is on the service provider to prove that they're being asked to do something unreasonable, not on the person to prove that it IS reasonable.

(There are, of course, countries where there aren't discrimination laws, but the OP had specified areas of travel)

I missed the point completely, I used to take the babies and the nanny with me when I travelled for work when BF.
I may have saved a fortune not buying formula, but I spent another fortune in compromises to make my choices work.
You should be able to fit a fair amount of expressed milk and your clothes in one hold bag. Why is that not a reasonable solution?

Kickass, I totally agree. Telling a woman to suck it up because, y'know, she's breastfeeding now and everybody knows that means she has to lose out in ways to which men aren't subject... it spectacularly misses the point of equal opportunities (as well as smacking of an "I'm alright Jack" attitude).

OP I agree in principle that a breastfeeding mother should be able to transport more than 100ml expressed milk without being charged money to do so, even if travelling without a baby. (And to PP: yes, of course it's possible to do so safely).

However, the petition is too woolly and needs more specific goals. For example, unlimited expressed milk in the hold is unfeasible so what limit should apply: 1 litre, 10kg, etc.? And what about the need for airport security to screen samples of milk (as they can do when travelling with a baby): does that need special provision? And should it be limited to breastfeeding mothers or should anyone (e.g., partner) be allowed to transport expressed milk? These questions and more all need answering as part of developing a policy so I don't think it's feasible for a petition to specify them. Also, unless you want this agreement to be limited to domestic flights, shouldn't a petition be directed to the European Commission rather than the UK Civil Aviation Authority?

People with FF babies are advised to take their usual brand with them. They have to put this in the hold. You could put your expressed milk in the hold. The winner is the BFing mother who is travelling with her baby. If she can manage to get all the gubbins in hand luggage.

So why not for passengers?

Why is it OK to make one pat of the population pay for something which is entirely due to their physical condition? People with wheelchairs don't get charged extra for using them, people of different religions aren't charged for the prayer/meditation rooms provided. Why is this one requirement, caused 100% from being female, able to circumvent discrimination law when other requirements aren't?

It just doesn't follow the logic or the intention of anti-discrimination legislation. That's nothing to do with if someone a feminist or not, it's a loophole in the law.

Airlines are not different, they have to provide fridges for lactating hostesses, female pilots and ground staff.

I find it a little depressing that here on the feminist board two posters have taken the opportunity to remind me that I have to make 'compromises' and 'accommodations' now that I am a parent.

Sorry but just because it is a feminist board it doesn't mean posters have to agree with you.

Being a parent means you do have to compromise sometimes whether you like it or not

I think that some people aren't aware of the basic principle behind whether something is sexist/breaking sex discrimination or not.

If a man with a young child is able to travel without incurring extra costs, so should a woman be. By saying 'we're charging for the bottles, not the woman' it's disingenuous. Women who breastfeed and travel away from their child need to be able to express. There are many reasons why they may not want/be able to simply ditch it and then feed the baby once they get home. Forcing an extra charge on them because they lactate is charging them for being a female with breasts. That therefore puts it into the sex discrimination bracket.

Work places have to provide a safe place for expressed milk to be stored so that it isn't thrown away, and cannot charge the woman for doing so. Why are airlines different?

All people with child dependants make compromises. From when your eldest child starts school until your youngest finishes, families have to take holidays outside of term time. Compromises are a fact of life, parents have to make a lot of them.

Empty or with some liquid in? Any bottle over 100ml containing liquid can't go through security. Empty bottles can. However people often choose to bin them there. I typically drink what I want, dump the bottle and get a cold fresh one on the other side.

I travel for work and had a non latching baby so expressed. I never wanted to bring expressed milk home though as I didn't want to feed my baby milk that hadn't been kept consistently fridge cold and I couldn't ensure that. So I pumped and dumped to maintain my supply. I just don't see the need for what you are proposing. However I sympathise - travelling for work leaving behind a young baby is bloody hard.

This seems a bit of a non-issue to me. How many mothers of breast-fed babies are travelling without their children while still breastfeeding? Then, of that number, how many are away for a sufficient length of time that they need to bring the expressed milk back with them rather than expressing and disposing of the milk? Your petition seems to suggest that babies need 1 litre a day but that expressing may take five days to produce that amount, so you could be away for up to four days (approx) and still be able to bring back, say, 6 100ml bottles of milk with you without problem? So the issue then only applies to breastfeeding mothers who are travelling without children for 3 or more days? And of that number it really only affects those who are going to be travelling frequently enough during that breastfeeding period that they won't have time to express enough on their return home to get them through the next business trip? So we're surely down to a very small number then?

Or am I missing something really obvious?

I know you said you don't have a choice about these trips but it seems that this one of the many compromises that you are going to have make as a parent - if you are travelling internationally frequently and for more than an overnight trip, then you may have to accept doing some mixed feeding with your baby?

No, that's about part full bottles. There is no rule about empty bottles.

No, that's about part full bottles. There is no rule about empty bottles.