Hi Barbara,
the break time is a huge issue for many occupations, and it is a major sticking point for getting legislation passed. We took a bill to the Oregon state legislature last session which passed the Senate by a wide margin, and then got stuck in committee on the House side. One of the main objections was "what if there is no one to cover the employee while she goes off to pump?"
Martha Johnson RN IBCLC
Eugene OR
-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Wilson Clay [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 8:34 AM
Subject: workplace options -- response to Judy Sather
Judy,
There are many options that employers can chose from to make it possible for
their female employees to combine working and breastfeeding. In my
experience, such decisions are made from the "inside out". In other words,
employees approach the boss, and together they explore options -- many times
based on physical space, privacy and access concerns, and time constraints.
I have worked with Apple Computer here in Austin, where the Health and
Fitness Director is in charge of the Lactation Room. Their pump room is a
small office space that was retrofitted with a sink. It is brightly
painted, decorated with posters, and contains a table with a Lactina pump
and a chair. There is an electronic lock on the door, and employees are
given a key card. At one time, IBM had a program where they reimbursed for
the cost of a rental grade pump for a full year for every employee who
needed one. The employees (generally engineers) would just pump in their
offices with the doors locked. At the Texas Dept. of Health, a utility
closet was cleaned up and a lock put on the door.
The space need not be large, however some companies have really gone all
out. At Motorola, the two newest Austin facilities were built with plans in
the blueprints for a Mothers Room. In one facility the entrance is through
the corporate nurse's office and in the other, the entrance is through an
inside door off the women's restroom. The rooms in both facilities feature
lockers, sinks, and curtained bays. The bays allow the mothers to have
privacy while pumping, but increase the number of women the rooms can
accommodate at any one time.
So companies work out their own arrangements, and many are creative.
Probably the harder accommodations to arrange are for women working on line
manufacturing or fast food or other low end pay jobs. The social inequity
there really bothers me. Even teachers and nurses have harder times getting
to pumps due to lack of coverage for them while pumping. However, I feel
strongly that if smokers can get coverage for smoking breaks, then moms
ought to be permitted time to pump.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
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