There is nothing to my knowledge in the ten steps to successful  
breastfeeding about employee pumping rooms.  But how on earth could  
anyone think that the outpatient lactation assessment room would be  
sufficient space for all the myriad women needing to pump in the  
course of a normal day?  And what about privacy?  How many staff want  
to be expressing milk in the presence of patients they might be caring  
for?  Not to mention cleanliness, and accessibility - is it  
appropriate for patients to use a space contaminated by staff from  
other wards, and do the staff have time to get to one single location  
in their allotted pumping time?  There should be a suitable space for  
milk expression on every single floor, preferably on every ward, such  
as a room otherwise used for exams, or meetings, or breaks.

Would anyone expect all staff to only use the toilets at the  
gastroenterology clinic, or the urology clinic, rather than having  
toilets available wherever there are employees?   Why should they use  
patient facilities to carry out an equally normal, healthy bodily  
function, just because it is the same function as the patients in that  
particular area?

Is there a common cafeteria for staff and patients?  If no, why not?   
Use the same argument about pumping.  If yes, what is the rationale  
for that, and would it be applicable to the situation of expressing  
milk?

Granted, this is not a huge problem where I work, since women are  
fairly comfortable expressing milk in full view of their colleagues,  
in a break room or the like, and we are very used to seeing containers  
of breastmilk floating around on the ward.  I still remember my first  
boss here, receiving a commercial representative for some product or  
other, while she was borrowing one of the ward pumps to express for  
her baby at home.  I don't think it ever occurred to her to stop  
pumping and put her bra flaps up while talking to the guy, so he was  
just forced to act like it was totally normal too.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
Hey, maybe this would be a way to deal with formula reps!  Make a rule  
that they can only do their presentations in the staff pumping rooms...

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