#SponsorBlog: TRICARE Offers 100% Coverage of the Wearable Elvie Stride

by Milk N Mamas Baby

Milk N Mamas Baby provides new mothers, military spouses, and lactating service members with breast pumps and accessories that are 100% covered by TRICARE.
In May of this year, I was absolutely heartbroken to read about Navy spouse, renowned photographer, and nursing mom Shannon O’Hara’s harsh treatment at the hands of Delta Airlines. Forced to gate-check her personal item bag, which contained her pump and expressed milk, Shannon had to wait 14 hours between pumping her milk and breastfeeding owing to a flight delay. The pain of engorgement left Shannon with no recourse but to hand express her backed up breastmilk into a toilet. This is unimaginable in this day and age.

How can on-the-go parents prepare for worst case travel scenarios?
While there’s absolutely no excuse for the treatment Shannon experienced, it offers some insight into what moms are likely to deal with when traveling. Planning ahead, at least for the foreseeable future, means planning for a worst case travel scenario.

One option for traveling moms is a wearable breast pump, which minimizes the bulk they have to haul around with them. That’s actually advantageous even in a best case scenario.

Unfortunately, until recently there were few wearable options, and most wearable pumps on the market aren’t covered by insurance. The price without the breast pump benefit is way too high for many moms, which left us all lugging larger pumps, like it or not. However, today, I’m excited to tell you there is a new wearable breast pump on the market that your insurance will completely cover.

The new wearable Elvie Stride makes travel while pumping a breeze, and it’s 100% covered by TRICARE.
You read that right. Elvie, the innovative, woman-owned fem-tech company has delivered a new hands-free pump to the market, and this one is 100% covered by TRICARE for active duty servicemembers and mil-spouses! That means you can apply your insurance breast pump benefit to the Elvie Stride and enjoy the benefits of a premium wearable pump without the premium price tag. It may not be able to improve the attitude of backwards corporations towards lactating parents, but it can make travel while pumping (or working or enjoying a day off) much, much easier.

What makes the Elvie Stride different than other pumps?
The first thing you’ll notice about the Elvie Stride is its sleek design. The two lightweight hubs of the double electric breast pump slide right into any standard nursing bra, which means you can wear them rather than carry them while traveling. The Stride was designed to eliminate noise, so you can pump anywhere, anytime without drawing attention. You can control the pump through a discreet, palm-sized remote, and if you connect it to the free Elvie Pump app, you can also save your optimal pumping settings and track your pumping history from your phone.

Is there a catch?
This particular pump is only being sold through select durable medical equipment (DME) companies, which means you’re not going to be able to find it in retail stores. However, that’s not a problem for you because Milk N Mamas Baby, a DME company focused on breast pumps, has you covered. We’ve got your Elvie Stride waiting for you at our e-commerce shop, and we’ve made the online checkout process completely hassle-free. As a TRICARE-contracted breast pump supplier, we directly bill TRICARE for your breast pump benefit without charging you anything. We’ll even assist with obtaining your prescription.

Portable pumps aren’t the answer to breastfeeding injustice, but they’re a solution while we wait.
Even before opening my online shop, I was invested in helping to create a more just, accommodating, and affordable culture for breastfeeding moms. I lobbied on behalf of breastfeeding moms for years and worked out a contract with State Medicaid to ensure personal use, hospital grade breast pumps were covered for nursing mothers. I am sad and angry that moms like Shannon still have to experience rude, thoughtless treatment that has the potential to impact their health and wellness.

A portable pump isn’t the answer to this kind of injustice, which is all too common. We’ve got a lot of work left to do to eliminate backwards attitudes and create a world that is safer and healthier for lactating parents. However, fem-tech products designed by women for women are a step in the right direction, and the Elvie Stride promises to make travel while breastfeeding much simpler.