A situation has come up at our hospital and I am looking to see what other 
hospitals do. First, we are a children's hospital (no deliveries) with a 45 bed 
level III NICU. In the NICU, we have portable pumps for the mothers that want 
to pump at bedside plus a pump room that has curtains and 3 chairs and pumps 
for the mothers that are not comfortable pumping at bedside, for whatever 
reason.  Over the past 3 1/2 years that we have had a lactation program, we have 
encouraged and supported father's involvement in helping and supporting their 
partners through the lactation process, both in and out of the pump room. 
Recently, we have had a clinical leader on the unit return from maternity leave 
pumping. She has told us that she and "other staff" are not comfortable with 
fathers being in the pump room and she wants to put up a sign asking them not to be 
in the pump room if another mother is in there. We have not heard any 
complaints from mothers of patients regarding this. We are not comfortable with this 
scenario as we feel that we need to strengthen the bond between parents and 
get both involved however we can. We have already enlisted the help of 
Engineering to lengthen the curtains between the spaces so that there is not a chance 
of anyone "peeking" over the wall and under the curtain. We have asked for a 
meeting with her and other "concerned" staff to discuss this and she declined 
the meeting. We are asking again for a meeting to discuss this. By the way, this 
clinical leader has the ability to pump in her office, across the hall, or go 
to a private pump room on another unit. 

We would like to know what other hospitals do. Do you welcome dads into pump 
rooms that are multi-user? Has this been an issue? What about post partum 
units that still have semi private rooms...are the fathers in the 2nd bed asked to 
leave the room when the mom in the 1st bed is breastfeeding or pumping? We 
are being told that "they" want it like the unit was 4 years ago when the sign 
on the door stated "Mom's Only".  Any help in dealing with this latest staff 
attitude would be greatly appreciated. 
Chris Smith, RN, IBCLC, RLC
Columbus Children's Hospital

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