USA TODAY International Edition
Nursing moms face barriers at work
Return to jobs presents challenges for feeding babies
When Bailey Cannon Dean started a new job two months ago, she was still nursing her baby boy, River.
“My work is super supportive,’’ says Cannon Dean, 39, who is an OB- GYN in Reno Nevada. She’s able to pump milk in her office, and her employer has given her a refrigerator where she can store it and offered her an exam room where she can have some privacy. “But it’s still hard, just logistically.’’
Once, when she had to pump while a patient was in labor, the only private space she could retreat to was a locker room. “I just sat there ( and) locked the door,” she said, adding that when she had contemplated pumping while being back at work “I had no idea how hard it was going to be.’’
The barriers working moms face providing breast milk to their babies made headlines during the recent NCAA tournament when University of Arizona women’s basketball coach Adia Barnes had to pump milk at halftime, and other nursing mothers had to choose between bringing their infants to the COVID- 19 restricted competition, or taking members of their staffs.
“They have to warm up the bottle with the heat packs that are here on the sideline,” said ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, speaking about Barnes’ multiple responsibilities during games. “Let’s normalize working mothers, and all that they have to do to make it all happen.”
Pumping during the workday is a quandary for millions of women. And it’s a growing concern for some mothers as the pandemic wanes and those who’ve been able to do their jobs from home prepare to go back to the workplace.
“We have already heard from many parents who have concerns about what it would look like returning to work,” says Tina Sherman, a senior campaign director focused on maternal justice for Moms Rising, a group dedicated to issues affecting mothers and families.
The challenges of providing breast milk to their babies may be yet another pressure point for women trying to regain their professional footing after being disproportionately pushed out of the workforce during the pandemic.
Some who have already gone back to their jobs have experienced “pushback” about pumping from employers “because of concerns around COVID and transmission,” Sherman says. “There will be a myriad of issues we’ll need to address with women being forced out of the workplace, and this is definitely going to be one of them.’’
The law protects some but not all
A 2010 federal law requires that most workers earning an hourly wage have a reasonable break time as well as private space other than a bathroom to pump breast milk for up to one year after giving birth. That requirement also applies to some salaried employees.
Yet roughly 60% of working moms don’t have a private place to pump on the job or an adequate amount of time to do it, Sherman says.
“Many of our members have shared that they’ve been pumping in an airplane bathroom or in parked cars or in … cubicles with no privacy,” Sherman says, adding that many of these moms use less than ideal places because the law isn’t expansive enough.
Roughly 9 in 10 new mothers heading back to their jobs intend to keep feeding their babies breast milk, according to a survey taken in the midst of the pandemic by New Moms’ Healthy Returns, an initiative that provides support to new mothers in the workplace.
But nearly half were not certain or had little confidence that areas for pumping would be sufficiently clean, according to the poll taken in May and June. And 1 in 3 said they intend to tell their employer what they need to be able to pump in a safe environment, including designated areas and cleaning supplies.
Culture needs to change
Even when their employers are understanding, mothers grappling with a broader culture that still hasn’t embraced their needs as workers can make some feel self- conscious.
Lindsay Craig, 36, balanced breastfeeding with virtual meetings while working from home during the pandemic.
“We are expected to be on camera when we have Zoom meetings but my boss doesn’t mandate it every single time,’’ says Craig, who does business development and marketing for a law firm and lives in Bethesda, Maryland. “There’s been many times when I’ve been nursing or pumping on Zoom calls and I’m just on mute and I have my camera off.”
After committing to nursing her son Logan until his first birthday, working remotely meant not having to worry about office- appropriate clothing that would make it easier to pump, “and all of the other things that come into play when you’re a nursing mother,” Craig says. “So for me, it’s been a blessing in disguise working from home.’’
Now that Logan is about to turn 1, Craig probably will not need to pump when she returns to the office. But if she did, her employer offers plenty of resources, including a lactation room, private space on every floor where moms can pump and a service that nursing mothers can use to send milk home when they’re traveling for business.
Still, Craig believes she’d feel a little awkward if she had to leave a meeting to go pump. “I think people would be understanding,” she says, “but me personally, I would feel uncomfortable because it feels like a private thing I shouldn’t have to share.’’
There are many challenges to navigate says Cannon Dean, including not getting so distracted by work tasks that you forget to pump.
“I don’t think you know until you go through it,” she says. “You can have days perfectly scheduled and it can still go awry. But that’s kind of motherhood in general.’’
New legislation could make it easier for new moms
The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act ( PUMP) was introduced in the U. S. House last year by Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D- N. Y., and in the U. S. Senate by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D- Ore., Sen. Lisa
Murkowski, R- Alaska, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D- Ill., and Sen. Corey Booker, D- N. J.
If passed, the bill would expand the federal provision requiring adequate time and space to pump breast milk to an additional 9 million workers. It also would enable employees to hold their companies accountable if they don’t comply with the law.
But more steps are necessary to support new parents, advocates say. Currently, 1 in 4 mothers return to work within 10 days of birth, but mothers might be able to spend more time with their newborns if the U. S. Congress passes a law establishing paid family leave, Sherman says.
And among working mothers, 4 out of 5 say companies could do more to help employees who are nursing, says Melissa Gonzales, executive vice president of the Americas for breast pump maker Medela, which helped launch the New Moms’ Healthy Returns initiative. Resources to help new mothers pump while on business trips along with more flexible work schedules are important.
“Every mother must have time to recover from birth, bond with her baby and establish breastfeeding without facing a loss of wages or other financial detriment,” Gonzales said in an email.
Changes must go beyond legislation. “Normalizing breastfeeding, normalizing motherhood ... and what that looks like in a working environment is so critical,” Sherman says. “A parent may need to step out to pump or to breastfeed. The laws need to be there but at the same time there ( needs to be) a cultural shift.”