Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Travel adventures: Fort Lauderdale Airport's Baby Oasis


HALLIE EPHRON: I was with Hank, making our way to our gate at the Fort Lauderdale Airport a few weeks ago (on our way back from Sleuthfest) when we spotted it. . .



The little windowless, wheel-less trailer with its outside walls painted with sky and clouds, stopped me in my tracks.  Everyone else walking by stopped to gawk, too.



Of course, being a mystery writer, I was instantly curious.



The sign on the door says Baby Oasis, and the door (I tried to get in, of course, at which point Hank said I had the makings of an investigative reporter) had a fancy combination lock that you needed an app to open. Since I couldn't get inside, I had to go online to find a photo of the interior.


It looks pretty basic. White plastic. A bench, a charging station, a changing table. Presumeably lighting. Hopefully lighting.



Still, the idea of going inside with my baby and shutting the door? Locking us in?  Nuh uh.



But maybe I'm out of touch. After all, it's been a a long time since I nursed my babies, and back then it was far less common than it is now.

And I had to wonder when I saw this little box with a door on it: Is this to protect mothers and their babes from prying eyes, or to avoid offending the delicate sensibilities of other passengers. (To me, the sight of a baby being discreetly breastfed is less offensive than the omnipresent CNN feeds.)



Pumping is a different thing entirely. I don't think portable breast pumps had been invented when I had my babies, and it was unusual for a baby moms to work and travel and breastfeed. Pumping is not something I'd be comfortable doing at a crowded departure gate. And camping out in the Baby Oasis does seem a cut above trying to pump, crammed into an airplane bathroom.
 
So what do you think? Hip hip hooray or a royal raspberry for Broward County for installing lactation suites (yup, that's what they call them) in the airport?

My take? An enthusiastic thumbs-up, as long as no one's forced to use them. And I've now filed it in an idea-compartment: the perfect place to hide a body in a busy airport. Provided you've downloaded the app.
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40 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. At first, as a mom who nursed all her babies, I think “clever idea.” Then I wonder . . . if it’s really meant to be a convenience for nursing moms and their babies, it ought to be, well, nicer. Bigger. Like a real room, maybe. Nevertheless, I give them credit for realizing that nursing moms and babies ought to have a comfortable place . . . nah, there’s nothing comfortable-looking about this oasis . . . and it certainly doesn’t live up to what I imagine a “suite” ought to be like.

    So, I’ll give them a thumbs-up for recognizing the need and acting on it, but I could never close myself inside this claustrophobic-inducing little trailer . . . .

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    1. My take on it precisely. There's such a thing as too much privacy.

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  3. Thumbs up from me! The simple and natural act of nursing has somehow become polarizing, at least mothers (with the app) have a safe place if they opt to use it. And Hallie, I agree, it appears to be the perfect place to pump. I doubt this will be the ultimate solution, but it is a great first step, and quite attractive from the outside.

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    1. It is attractive from the outside, I'll give them that.

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  4. That's absolutely better than nursing (or pumping) in a bathroom. Would YOU eat lunch in a bathroom? While I traveled with my babies a lot, I simply nursed wherever we were, and because I was with them and had plenty of supply, I didn't need to pump.

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    1. That's how I felt, too, Edith - so much more convenient than schlepping around bottles. Only problem was I couldn't hand her off to my husband for feeding if I wanted to.

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  5. I think it's a great idea! There should be more and not just in airports!

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    1. So where else could you get 'stuck' for hours on end? Bus terminals. Train stations. Ikea.

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    2. Ikea! Ha, the middle of the store, where you wonder if you'll ever find the exit.

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  6. Several of my nephews' wives have used these discreet wraps for nursing in public--easy to adjust, perfect privacy for the mother and her infant. But for mothers who would prefer to nurse away from the hordes, or need to pump, then, yeah, this looks like a good first step. But would it kill them to add some cushions? Also, the portability is good, I think. Because, presumably at a mother's request, the 'room' can be brought to the mother wherever in the airport she's at.

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    1. Not sure how portable. No wheels. But I love the idea of this little trailer thing rolling around the airport like the handicap transport vehicles. With music, I think. Brahm's lullaby playing as it goes along its merry way.

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  7. I nursed both my kids. I never really needed a "private" place (although once I found the ladies' lounge at one of the local malls, I think it was a Lord & Taylor's, I was in heaven only because it was so comfortable). But I had friends whose babies were the curious type. People milling around would cause them to unlatch and leave Mom, um, hanging as it were. So I'd imagine they would be happy for some privacy.

    And yes, pumping is not something to do in public.

    On the other hand, would it kill them to at least put a padded seat on that bench? Sheesh.

    But thumbs up for trying.

    Mary/Liz

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  8. It's so--cagey. Cagelike. Why not have a ROOM? A real room? Take some room and make it comfy and clean and yeah, Mary, with cushions. But I guess cushion-free is easier to keep clean. And I guess having to use an app to get in prevents weirdos and strangers from entering, as they might if you had just a room. And I supposed you're not supposed to hang out there, just use it for privacy as long as you need to , then go watch CNN with everyone else.

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    1. I bet that explains a lot of it, Hank - private and available only to nursing mothers (I suppose.) But easy to sterilize-clean and not so comfy that any one woman would hang out for an hour, making other moms wait.

      I agree - if they were really into having a comfortable, private place for nursing mothers, have a room like one of the member lounges, where many women can go. Add in a play area for their older kids, and you'd have a lot of happy parents AND happy other travelers not dealing with little kids!

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    2. It's good that people have a choice if they don't want to nurse in public. It bugs me that something as normal as feeding your child can get you arrested in some places.(It happened in my town some years ago.) I do wonder how easy/difficult using one of these pods might be for a mom who has one or more other small children in addition to the baby but doesn't have another adult along.

      DebRo

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  9. I also love imagining someone coming up with this idea. HEY! Someone said to someone else. What if...

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  10. I agree with those who have said it's a good attempt to meet a need. It almost looks like a prototype: let's put one out there on the cheap and see if anyone uses it. I imagine cushions would be harder to clean.

    Hallie, your body-hiding case could be interesting, especially if the police assume the murderer has to be a woman.

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  11. Intriguing but the list of questions is long. Who has to maintain it? If you are inside, does that disable the app for someone else? Does the app have a locator function to help you find one that is "available"? Is there a power source if your pump needs that? Is there a "timeout" feature so that someone on a long layover doesn't just park in there? And yes - I also immediately went to the "great place to hide a body" train of thought.

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    1. Lysa, those are fabulous questions!
      (I gather from the descriptions online that there IS a power source. I wonder if they considered calling it a pumping station (snicker)?)

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  12. It saddens me that the debate over the "right" way to bring up an infant seems worse now than it was 24 years ago when I had an infant. But, yeah, this solution seems at least well-intended, if not 100% on target.

    As to the "great place to hide a body" argument, I think it would be great if the app was downloaded to a burn phone using a fictitious identity, and the phone left in the room with the body. That would prevent them from being able to track the killer based on who was allowed into the room.

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  13. When I was breastfeeding, I sure as hell wasn't doing much traveling because I couldn't afford it no did I have the energy. I thought about my feelings on this room, like the idea, and I know there are lots of mothers out there who are shy about nursing in public. However, almost every place I go these days, airports excepted, have mother/baby rooms, usually off the women's lounges. They are comfortable, deep couches and chairs, and I'd have not issues using them if I needed too No, I wouldn't want to eat in the toilet, but these are much more than that.

    I also see, to deviate from the subject just a hair, so many family restrooms, where fathers can take their kids to go potty or get a diaper changed. What a great concept, so much better than daddy standing nervously outside the women's room waiting for his eight year old daughter.

    All in all, I think these little port-a-nummies are great but need a little work to improve.

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    1. Or a nervous grandmother, standing helplessly outside the men's room while her five-year old grandson is in there. That has to have been the scariest time of my life, when Zak was small and he and I went to public places together. His mother let him go to the men's room, but my imagination would go wild if he took more than a couple of minutes.

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    2. Since I only had daughters I never thought about this. I do see plenty of moms bringing their little boys into the women's room and no one blinks. Probably works until the little boys are old enough to object.

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    3. same here, Karen. My son was fascinated with faucets and water and if was in there more than a minute I was yelling through the door! But I didn't let him go in there until he was about 7 or 8

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    4. Whenever there was a 'family' restroom available, we always used it. Yes, the scariest times of all, waiting outside the men's room when they were too big to take to the women's side. And the local rec center--loved that they had a whole line of 'family' changing rooms with doors and shower stalls for swim times, as well as the family restrooms. I often saw fathers with daughters using those, too.

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    5. Family restrooms are a wonderful idea. I can still recall my nervousness (not to mention how weird it looked) hanging around the outside of a men's room waiting for the Sailor. There's definitely a gap between the years you can take them in the ladie's with you, and the years they confidently handle the men's alone.

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  14. Manual breast pumps!!! The pain. The pod seems like an odd "amenity" to me, and I know I would never use it -- I really hate being confined in a windowless space.

    Where was I when I saw a fairly large indoor playground in an airport?

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    1. I've seen those playgrounds in lots of airports recently. Guessing: repurposed smoking areas!

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    2. There is a really nice kids' "playroom" at Love Field in Dallas.

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  15. I think the pod is a great idea, in theory. But couldn't they have given it a one-way window? I think I'd be panicked that the door wouldn't unlock. Maybe the best use of these would be for pumping moms.

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  16. I don't know that I'd want to go in there either.

    And I loved your comment "To me, the sight of a baby being discreetly breastfed is less offensive than the omnipresent CNN feeds." Couldn't agree more. I really don't get why there is such an issue about discreet breastfeeding in public.

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  17. Since Youngest converted to Islam, I've been a lot more aware of accommodations suitable for religious minorities in public places. As non-suite-like as the Baby Oasis is, it could be a godsend to hijabi Muslim or orthodox Jewish moms.

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    1. Julia, that's a great point I hadn't even considered.

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  18. I think it's great to have the option, although I certainly think breastfeeding women should be welcome to feed their babies out in the open. We're such prudes as a society! Presumably, during the making of the baby, a bare breast was glimpsed, but when it comes to feeding, everyone gets skittish?

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  19. Thumbs up! Sometimes it's stressful with all the chaos around you to get junior to relax and latch on, so that's a nice quiet spot, but (there's always a but) if there's a diaper pail in there, the smell would force me out. I always nursed in public with the baby blanket over the shoulder and no one ever told me I shouldn't/couldn't. If they had I probably would have poked them in the eyes and told them to mind their own business.

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  20. As an option, I guess I'm okay with it, but it seems to smack of let's hide the breast-feeding moms where they won't offend anyone. However, if a mother isn't comfortable breastfeeding in public, then, it's an option, and, as Julia pointed out, for different religious beliefs or comfort levels, too. I do see how lots of mothers use those cover-ups thought that work really well. Hank, I do think I like your idea of a room for mothers instead of a tiny pod. Why couldn't a code be installed on the door to that room like it is on the door to the pod?

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  21. They could have put a window so that when seated, the Mom wouldn't be visible but she could look out.

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