http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10breast.html?
_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=health_&pagewanted=print

September 10, 2007
Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam Time 
By ELIZABETH OLSON
One test stands between Sophie Currier and her Harvard medical degree and a 
prestigious residency. 

But Ms. Currier says she runs a high risk of failing the test unless the National 
Board of Medical Examiners gives her additional break time to pump breast milk 
for her 4-month-old daughter.

The board has refused the request, and on Thursday, Ms. Currier asked a 
Massachusetts Superior Court judge to order it to give her extra time on each 
of two days of testing, plus a private room with a power outlet so she can 
express her milk in private with an electric pump. (The nine-hour exam, on 
clinical knowledge, allows 45 minutes for breaks.)

The case, to be heard on Wednesday, is a harbinger of what could be a 
growing problem. More women than ever are studying medicine, and they must 
take three exams to become doctors. At the same time, groups like the 
American Academy of Pediatrics strongly encourage breast-feeding for its 
health and developmental benefits.

Ms. Currier, 33, of Brookline, Mass., wrote to the medical examiners’ board in 
June to request the extra time, saying she needed to pump milk to avoid 
painful breast engorgement and mastitis, an infection stemming from blocked 
milk ducts.

In a letter dated July 11, Catherine Farmer, the board’s manager of disability 
services, responded that it could accommodate only conditions covered by the 
Americans With Disabilities Act. She added that Ms. Currier could spend some 
of her break time pumping breast milk in another testing room. Testing rooms 
are monitored and have glass walls. 

Ms. Farmer said on Friday that the board’s privacy policy prohibited it from 
commenting on individual cases.

Ms. Currier, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Harvard, has received 
some accommodation from the board for dyslexia and attention deficit 
hyperactivity disorder. She can take the nine-hour test over two days instead 
of one, but she is seeking an additional 60-minute break on each day.

Dr. Alison Stuebe, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and 
a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, supported Ms. Currier’s 
request in an affidavit filed with the court. 

“Forty-five minutes,” Dr. Stuebe wrote, “is insufficient time for a nursing 
mother of a 4-month-old to eat, drink, use the restroom and to fully and 
properly express breast milk using an electric pump two times over the course 
of eight hours.”

If Ms. Currier is forced to delay taking the exam, “it will cause her significant 
hardship” by delaying her ability to earn a living and to begin repaying school 
loans, and possibly leading to the loss of clinical knowledge and skills, Dr. 
Stuebe said.

Ms. Currier said she was already feeling pressure because she took the test in 
April, when she was eight months’ pregnant, and failed it by a few points. She 
has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General 
Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes this test, which 
she plans to take on Sept. 15. 

“This should be as simple as ducking into the bathroom to pump the milk,” said 
Ms. Currier, who is feeding her daughter breast milk exclusively. 

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