Breast milk in the fridge @ work

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2006
Breast milk in the fridge @ work
9
Mon, 12-18-2006 - 8:40pm
OK... let's just say that you are in the lunch room refrigerator at work and you reach for you lunch and accidentally brush your arm against somebody's BREAST MILK container!!!! Isn't this a biohazard??? Because it's a bodily fluid, and it's next to my lunch. Just like urine, just like blood. Can't it carry hepatitis and stuff??? Either way, when it's not your milk, it's not a "beautiful thing". There are 2 women currently taking breaks...I mean "pumping"...several times a day, while I have their patients sitting there staring at me because they ALWAYS run late. Well this one time, women #1 took woman #2's breast milk home by mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then they came to work the next day and laughed about it!!! Eeeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!! And that time I couldn't help but say "I'm sorry you guys, but that's disgusting!" to which they give me the "you don't understand because you're single" look. Anyone else have this happen??? They both leave early because they get time during the day to do their paperwork between patients while they're pumping (and while I'm getting their patients started and relinquishing my paperwork time) and I have to stay later!!!
Avatar for cl_shywon
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-20-2003
Mon, 12-18-2006 - 9:05pm

Ew. Ew. Ew.

Avatar for cfk_3
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-14-1999
Mon, 12-18-2006 - 9:54pm

That is a little gross.

I too have a breast pumping story. One of my old co-workers who now happens to be one of my closest friends breast fed for a year. She'd have to take two breaks per day to pump and sometimes at inopportune moments. I remember thinking, sheesh how long is this girl going to breast feed this kid.

Anyway, she's moved now and just had her second little girl. She had been pumping every day for 3 or 4 months, in a utility closet at work (she shares an office with another person). The closet didn't lock so she had to put a note on it every time she went in to pump. Well, she was sitting there, in the utility closet pumping one day when she looked over and noticed a fairly large space between two pieces of dry wall and could plainly see the guy whose desk is directly across from the closet!? She was so mortified that she started her little girl on formula that very night.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-16-2005
Tue, 12-19-2006 - 5:53am

ROFL that is hysterical.

A woman at work pumped but she has an office with blinds and a door that locks so it was no big deal and I never saw the bottles in the fridge so I don't know what she did with the bottles afterwards. Either she put them in a bag that was inconspicuous or she had them in a cooler in her office.

Smile,

Deirdre

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-21-2005
Tue, 12-19-2006 - 9:59am

That is SO gross.

Avatar for bklynpeach42
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2003
Tue, 12-19-2006 - 11:26am

Germs. Would you eat out of a pot that had been in the ladies room stall? In the "olden days" ladies rooms used to have a couch where they could sit and do such thing, but now most of them just have stalls. Lets face it, thats just not sanitary.

My exboss, now a stay at home mom, luckily had a locking office and one of those plug in bags that kept the milk cold.

Another girl who works in our building and luckily not my dept came in to show off her kid and breast fed in the cafeteria. Grossed me out. Men and women were clearly uncomfortable, but she of course was oblivious. I know some states, Georgia being one of them, moms have a Right to breastfeed whereever, but dang, she could have used a towel or something. I don't want to know my co-workers that intimately.

DeAnn

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-21-2005
Tue, 12-19-2006 - 11:50am
Good point.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-17-2003
Wed, 12-20-2006 - 1:54am
I say pump on, breastfeeding moms! America's pumping and breastfeeding moms are growing healthy kids who get sick less often and have higher IQ's and less chance of obesity later in life than formula-fed kids. Pumping breastmilk requires an incredible commitment, and unfortunately, a woman's right to nourish her infant the way God intended isn't protected in enough parts of this country that is supposed to stand for family values. So more power to you, breastfeeding moms who have to pump in all sorts of awful places, bathrooms included, and have no safe place to store your liquid gold!
Angela
Proud to be a breastfeeding mom!

Angie

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-19-2006
Wed, 12-20-2006 - 9:15pm
Don't the rest of us have a right NOT to have to store our sandwich next to someone's titty juice??? What if I wanted to store a urine sample in there? Urine is a natural thing from my body, and it's supposedly sterile. Oh, but wait. Would that be DISGUSTING???!!! Sorry that you have to pump in strange places, but trust me, the rest of us suffer too because at jobs like mine, we're picking up the slack while you guys are in there. We work on appointments at my job, and just because my co-worker isn't finished pumping doesn't mean that people aren't waiting around for her and then I have to start treating her patient and SHE gets the credit for it. Then I get stuck at work late to do preparations for the next day because she leaves early to get to daycare on time. Sorry to appear insensitive, but don't make it anyone else's problem...
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-31-2003
Thu, 12-21-2006 - 10:08am

Please remember that the Rules of Play ask that we 'agree to disagree, respectfully', especially when we are discussing a topic that we feel passionately about.