Rooms for nursing moms planned for Orlando International Airport
Nursing mothers soon are going to get their privacy at Orlando International Airport, with 14 rooms spread throughout the airport.
“We see across the country more and more interest in [nursing rooms] for the privacy,” said Phil Brown, the airport’s executive director. “There are some pieces of legislation we’ve seen that have those requirements of public facilities.”
The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, which runs the airport, on Wednesday approved funding for the construction of permanent and temporary rooms where mothers can go to breastfeed their babies. The project costs $553,000.
Other airports to have nursing rooms or dedicated spaces include Atlanta HartsfieldJackson International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport. Leaders at Denver International Airport plan to add some this year.
In total, Orlando International will get 14 nursing rooms — 10 permanent and four portable.
The permanent nursing rooms are expected to be completed between April and May and will be connected to restrooms in the airport, said Carolyn Fennell, airport spokeswoman. The portable ones, which will be standalone structures, will be in place by late April.
The portable rooms will be spread throughout the airside and landside portions of the airport, giving passengers access to dedicated, private spaces before and after security checkpoints.
Of the permanent rooms, six will be airside, while four will be landside, said Fennell.
“It’s really important for the traveling public,” said Dr. Joan Meek, past chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee Board of Directors.
Meek said a lot of women “believe they can’t combine breastfeeding and working and travel.”
Brown said Orlando International regularly sees a large volume of families. The demand for nursing rooms in the airport reflects the type of travelers coming here, he said.
“What we’re seeing is there’s a need for it,” Brown said. “So what we’re trying to do is position for it.”
Meek, the associate dean for Graduate Medical Education at the Florida State University College of Medicine, said without dedicated space to nurse, women are left picking between public exposure, covering the child with a cloth or finding privacy in a bathroom.
“The restroom is the last best place for that,” Meek said. “Would you eat your meal in a restroom?”
Airport leaders are designing the south terminal expansion, and nursing rooms are part of that discussion, said Brown.
“We’re still working through the final design, but we still have that,” he said. “We're going to have that capability.”
Central Florida’s other airport also has plans to meet the demand and need for nursing rooms.
Plans for the $43 million expansion at Orlando Sanford International Airport’s call for the addition of nursing rooms, said Diane Crews, the airport’s president and chief executive officer. Expansion plans include adding new gates, baggage carousels and security lanes over the next several years.
Fennell said the rooms will not just benefit mothers traveling with their children, adding they’ll equally service pumping mothers coming to the region for business or attending conventions.
Once they’ve left the airport, those mothers, in particular, are being accommodated at the Orange County Convention Center with private rooms to pump or nurse.
“Each show sets them up for nursing mothers,” said Gwen Wilson, the center’s spokeswoman. “We also use our medical offices.”