There’s no debate in the medical community about this: Breast milk is the best food for babies. It has the perfect amounts of fatty acids, lactose, water and amino acids for human digestion, brain development and growth, and contains 100 ingredients not found in formula. Breastfed infants share their mothers’ antibodies and have lower rates of hospital admissions, ear infections, diarrhea, rashes, allergies and other medical problems than bottle-fed babies.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians recommend that all babies, with rare exceptions, be breastfed and/or receive expressed human milk exclusively for the first six months of life and continue to receive breast milk for the next six months as they’re introduced to solid food.
Those recommendations run straight up against two other facts:
1) Almost 55 percent of mothers with infants are in the workforce, according to U.S. Census figures from 2002, the latest available.
2) “Working outside the home negatively affects initiation and duration of breastfeeding,” according to the Centers for Disease Control’s Healthier Worksite Initiative.
If you go back to work and want to continue breastfeeding, you will need to pump your breasts at work.
Is there a law requiring companies to let you do that?
Not in Washington, although state law “encourages employers to support their breastfeeding employees” and declare themselves “infant-friendly.” There’s no federal law either, so “the burden ends up on the employee going back to work,” says Kimberly Radtke, program coordinator of the Breastfeeding Coalition of Washington.
Even though they are not required to do so, will most companies give you a comfortable place to pump and flexible schedules to do so?
Despite improvements in the last five years, only 26 percent of employers nationwide report having a lactation support program and designated area for women to pump, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2007 Benefits Survey Report. Support is strongest in larger companies, weakest in small companies.
Can you work with your employer so that you can successfully breastfeed at work?
Absolutely. Radtke has been promoting breastfeeding in the workplace for more than a decade, and has a simple message for mothers: “It can be done.”
Getting What You Want
“Approach your boss while you’re still pregnant,” Radtke advises. “Do a written plan and provide information to show the value of continuing to breastfeed and the bottom-line benefit to the company.”
One of the biggest benefits is that breastfeeding mothers take fewer absentee days to look after sick babies. The Breastfeeding Coalition has prepared a free handout for women to give to their employers outlining “Potential Health Care Savings Associated with Breastfeeding.” It cites five studies showing that breastfed infants have lower rates of ear infections, allergies and respiratory infections. It details the average number of days off employees take to care for a sick baby – one to two days for each ear infection or allergy work-up; two to seven days for each respiratory infection – and the cost to the employer’s health care insurance for treatment – from ear infections that cost between $90 and $150 to respiratory infections that can cost up to $2,000 if a child is hospitalized.
“If an employer is supportive of breastfeeding, more women will stay on the job and there will be more retention of valuable employees,” Radtke adds. “Human Resources people have a better understanding now of the benefits; it’s not so new. They realize it doesn’t have to be disruptive and doesn’t cost anything.”
Radtke suggests asking your employer for these things:
• Permission to pump or express breast milk at work
• Flexible scheduling and break times to do the pumping
• A clean, well-heated and vented, private location to pump or express milk, preferably with a door that locks
• An electrical outlet, comfortable chairs, a sink and a separate refrigerator for storing the milk
• A hospital-grade breast pump provided by the company
• Lactation counseling and support.
Radtke recognizes that a woman may not get all of these things. “A business’ first attempt is usually to convert a closet” for breastfeeding, she says. “Ask for more than you want and be open to compromise.” If a company already offers some support, she suggests asking to take their services to the next level. “Look for allies and try to get support and ideas from other women at the office who have breastfed.”
Kim Rechner, a Lacey mom and breastfeeding advocate, tried using that approach five years ago when she went back to work at a small Pierce County hospital after the birth of her second son. She had to pump her breast milk in a crowded break room or a closet, and says she received no support from hospital administrators. The head of the union asked why she couldn’t just pump in the bathroom.
Rechner ended up staging a protest in the lobby and has been working ever since to persuade lawmakers to require employers to provide support to breastfeeding mothers returning to work. About 18 months ago, the hospital where she works finally provided a designated place with two pumps and two chairs for employees to use. “It’s used five to eight times a day; the surrounding office buildings use it too,” she says. “It’s been a great success.”
The lesson, Rechner says, “is that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
