Interesting story of no accommodation for breastfeeding that shocks even
Carolyn Maloney of New York.  
Massachusetts could use some breastfeeding legislation--it has none
according to LLL page.
I left a phone message for Sophie Currier regarding the Whisperwear pump.
Some lady GI's at Ft. Lewis
here in WA State use it as there are no places to pump other than a communal
bathroom or port-a-potty out in the field.
Wearing Whisperwear, they pump while they work and in eye-shot of anyone
around.  Plus, the pump is pretty quiet if they are on the phone, so it
should not bother anyone else.  Wonder if the exam board would allow Ms.
Currier to wear
it.
Judy Ritchie

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/nationworld/story/94173.html


Nursing mother challenges test rules
CAREY GOLDBERG; The Boston Globe 
Published: June 23rd, 2007 01:00 AM

BOSTON - She already has a doctorate from Harvard. Now, after five years of
medical training, all that stands between Sophie Currier of Brookline,
Mass., and an elite double-barreled M.D.-Ph.D. is a daylong exam and her
commitment to breast-feeding her infant daughter. 
For Currier, 33, to begin her medical residency at Massachusetts General
Hospital this fall as scheduled, she must pass the clinical knowledge exam
run by the National Board of Medical Examiners by August. The exam is nine
hours long and allows a total of only 45 minutes in breaks.
But Currier is still nursing her 6-week-old daughter, Lea, and if she does
not pump milk from her breasts every two or three hours, she could suffer
blocked ducts, the discomfort of hard breasts, or an infection called
mastitis.
When she called the board last week to ask for extra break time, she said
she was told that the test provides special accommodations only for
disabilities covered by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, and
breast-feeding was not one of them.
Currier agreed that breast-feeding is not a disability. But it is physically
demanding: "What am I going to do, express milk all over your computer?" she
asked a board official.
In a statement faxed to the Globe, Catherine Farmer, the board's manager of
disability services, wrote that the disabilities act "does not cover
temporary conditions, such as pregnancy. . Furthermore, lactation,
breast-feeding and breast pumping are not disabilities as defined by the
ADA." However, she added, examinees could use their break time outside the
testing room for breast pumping, and if they finished sections of the test
early, they could gain extra time for breaks.

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