Another Tacoma News Tribune Article today
For URL try http://search.tribnet.com/archive/archive30/0617d12.html
Yesterday's article on the book Father's Milk is
http://search.tribnet.com/archive/archive30/0616d11.html
DaVita leader in county for providing care for new moms
Lactation room: Company set up special room for women who want to work,
breast-feed June 17, 2002
Debbie Cafazzo; The News Tribune
When financial analyst Lois Hodgson returned to work six weeks after the
birth of her son, she was committed to continuing breast-feeding.
She brought her own breast pump to her job at DaVita, the kidney
dialysis company with offices in downtown Tacoma.
Several times a day, she would squeeze into a restroom stall to express
milk from her breasts that she stored in bottles to take home to her
baby. But pumping in the restroom was often awkward and sometimes
unsanitary.
Fellow employee Jennifer Maya, who also pumped milk at work,
occasionally encountered other women in the restroom who seemed offended
by the practice.
After a few months, she wasn't producing enough milk at work. And she
was considering halting breast-feeding.
Then both women learned that their breast-feeding efforts were about to
get a boost from their employer. Late last month, DaVita opened a
special room for lactating mothers that offers privacy, comfort and
more.
The lactation room makes DaVita a leader among Pierce County employers,
according to MerrieLynn Rice, coordinator of the Pierce County
Breastfeeding Alliance. Under a state law passed in 2001, businesses can
designate themselves "mother-friendly" if they provide special
facilities for lactating mothers.
Unused private office space at DaVita was transformed into a room
designed especially for lactating women. The room offers two comfortable
glider-rockers where mothers can relax in subdued lamplight, while they
bask in the glow of the duckling yellow walls and smile at photographs
of their babies pinned to a bulletin board.
The company provides electric breast pumps in the room - saving busy
working women the trouble of lugging their own equipment to work each
day. Employees need only bring their own plastic apparatus that hooks up
to the pump and directs breast milk into bottles.
But if a woman forgets her plastic kit, there are extras in the room
that she can purchase. And the final touch: The room includes a small
refrigerator-freezer, so milk can be packaged and frozen, if desired,
for storage.
"You don't have to worry about it spoiling on the way home," Maya said.
And women also don't have to worry about restroom germs making their way
into milk they plan to feed their babies.
"My milk has increased," Hodgson said. "I'm not as stressed from trying
to hurry, the way I was in the restrooms."
"We were originally approached by the Pierce County Breastfeeding
Alliance," said Lynn LaDoe, DaVita's people services manager. Thanks to
the efforts of company project coordinator Larry Tornquist, the room
cost the company only about $2,000, she said.
"The rewards outweigh the costs," LaDoe said. "We are promoting
wellness. We have happy mothers."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breast-feeding
continue for at least a year after a baby is born.
Hodgson believes DaVita's efforts will go a long way. "The nice thing
about the room is that it can influence mothers who are borderline about
pumping," she said.
- - -
Debbie Cafazzo: 253-597-8635
[log in to unmask]
- - -
SIDEBAR: The Pierce County Breastfeeding Alliance is a volunteer group
of lactation consultants, nurses, mothers and others committed to
supporting breast-feeding at home and in the workplace. For more
information, call 253-798-3526.
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