I started school when my son was 7 months old. I was breastfeeding exclusively so I wondered what would happen once I was at school for at least 8 hours every other day. I am a commuter student (I am assuming most moms are) and I had to commute 40 mins to school every day while my mom watched my son.

Here are some of the things that I learned

My school (a public university) has rooms in almost every building called quiet rooms that are reserved for people who have medical conditions or are breastfeeding. There were some different rules for rooms in each building so be sure to look on your universities' website for lactation rooms/quiet rooms. You will then most likely have to contact the main office for that building to figure out where to get a key/combination, schedule yourself in, and find out if they have any particular rules or anything like that.

Some rooms will have pumps that you can use. Bring your own pump just in case. When I heard one of the rooms had a pump and I had the equipment that worked with it, I left my pump and only brought my equipment and the pump was ancient and totally sucked! So just be careful, be prepared.

Also, some rooms have fridges in them. Some days I would have to pump multiple times a day so I would leave my pump in the room and leave my milk in the fridge and I would pick it up near the end of the day. Let whoever is in charge of the room know about this though because then they can coordinate times for you to pick it up in case someone is using the room and no one will think that you accidentally forgot your stuff.

Be sure to bring some sort of insulated bag to keep your milk cold! Most likely you will have to carry around a bit at some point, especially as a commuter.

Be careful where you store your cooler bag don't store it too close to your pump in case any ice or anything starts to melt. Yes, I is smart and learned this the hard way which brings me to my last point...

Pumping at school is a pain in the ass. Lugging your pump to school everyday in addition to all the other stuff you are carrying is annoying but I felt that it was the best thing for my baby and I am glad that I did it. Unfortunately my pump broke due to the subject of the previous bullet point (heh...). That pump was like $300 and I decided since he was about 9 months old that I was going to stop pumping. Don't feel shamed for formula feeding, pumping while you are a commuter student is hard af. But, I encourage you not to give up so fast if you are determined to breastfeed, it can definitely be done! Just don't be stupid like I was and take care of your pump and yourself!