milk stork - shipping breastmilk overnight
This summer I went to a women’s “work away” retreat at AKERA in the Catskills. The space was truly incredible in all ways — the space and time for creativity plus the actual retreat center itself.
This was the longest I had been away from our daughter and if I’m being honest, I could rattle off 78 different excuses why I “shouldn’t” go. “She’s so little!” “What if she needs me?!” and so on and so on. While there was some validity to my questions, I knew that this was more than doable and carving out “me time” in motherhood is not going to happen on its own…
And sometimes it would be out of my comfort zone. Ahhh. The place where good things happen.
I was still breastfeeding. I had enough of a freezer stash to last about 3 full days, but not enough for the retreat overall. Hmmm. Another logistical roadblock. But again, when there’s a will there’s a way.
Enter, Milk Stork.
I had heard of them through someone I follow on instagram a while ago and it was sitting in the back of my mind.
They have a lot of milk-related services for various circumstances (a fantastic benefit for employers to offer to breastfeeding moms who are traveling for work).
Long story short, I was able to overnight my refrigerated breastmilk home mid-week.
Here’s how it worked:
They sent me a pre-packaged 1-time-use cooler (many options based on your needs via their website) plus shipping labels, breastmilk bags, etc.
I pumped as usual and refrigerated the milk. When it was time to ship it home, I quite literally just needed to press 1 button to activate the cooler, then drop it off at FedEx. I ended up dropping at a FedEx pick-up spot at a nearby Dollar General.
Here is me cheesing with my pumped milk. Very much hoping the Dollar General drop-off in the middle of the mountains was going to work.
The milk got to our doorstep the next day and it went just about as smooth as I could have hoped for.
It comes with a cost investment, but it was worth it for me! I strongly prefer no hassle things over DIY, especially if it will save me time and planning.