Dear all

I have been having some interesting chats on E-mail with others about the issue of supportive work environments for nursing mothers (my favourite topic at the moment)

It seems to me like this

1. Mother wants to breastfeed child
2. She also wants/needs to keep her job
3 She struggles to match the two and fiddles around with pumps, lunchbreak visits with baby, feeding more when she goes home etc
4. It all gets a bit difficult as the workplace really is not making a lot of effort to help her find a solution
5. She knows that the workplace is being unfair and she gets mad/upset but does not want to rock the boat as she is tired/trying to do two jobs at once (work and breastfeed)
6. She feels her performance slipping and her employer looks askance
7. She gets even more upset and mad at her employer for not being more supportive but still not in a position to do anything

8, 9 and 10 can have different endings, some happy some not

The question is - at what stage does she sue her employer for discrimination?

Looking forward to your replies and also to learn if anyone has ever taken an employer to court on issues related to workplace support for breastfeeding . I am not talking about the more blatant forms of discrimination here such as  sacking her, or not letting her have any breaks at all to feed the baby, but the more subtle stuff that can be just as harmful.

Mary E Black
Professor of Public Health
Dept of Social and Preventive Medicine
North Queensland Clinical School
PO box 1103 Cairns QLD 4870

Tel 61 740 503670
Fax 61 740 514 322
E-mail [log in to unmask]