Breaking barriers for breastfeeding employees

“With my first child, the company I worked for at the time lacked a dedicated space for breastfeeding and I was relegated to using a restroom stall and a manual pump,” shares Anne King, vice president of real estate and workplace enablement at Point32Health.

She goes on to say that having a manager who did not understand the needs of a breastfeeding mother brought on additional challenges, as she was expected to attend last-minute meetings that interfered with her breast pumping schedule.

“This was not only stressful, but unsustainable. I was unable to maintain breastfeeding for as long as I had hoped.”

Unfortunately, Anne’s story is not uncommon among working mothers. Read on to understand some of the barriers working mothers face when it comes to breastfeeding and how employers can best support.

Barriers in the workplace

In a society with plenty of logistical challenges and a lack of support when it comes to breastfeeding, it’s no surprise that only 15% of breastfeeding parents agree that public places are supportive of breastfeeding according to Mamava and Medala’s 2023 State of Breastfeeding Survey.

The workplace can present its own set of challenges, as the survey also showed that 1 out of 3 working mothers lack reliable access to a workplace lactation space and 1 in 2 parents are unsure about their workplace lactation rights.

And while federal law dictates that nursing employees have the right to break time to pump and a private place to pump at work, a lack of awareness within an organization can create additional barriers. Like Anne mentioned, if a breastfeeding mother is working with a colleague who is constantly putting last-minute meetings on their calendar or not allowing for flexibility in scheduling, that can make it difficult to pump at work.

Supporting breastfeeding employees

Anne shares that her experience breastfeeding with her second and third children was a completely different experience than with her first.

“In a new office environment, I had access to a reservable room equipped with a table, power outlets and a refrigerator. This seemingly simple change made a profound impact on my stress levels and overall well-being.”

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, most nursing employees must have access to a private space, that cannot be a bathroom, where they’re able to pump breast milk. As far as additional requirements, those vary by state. Massachusetts employers with more than six employees, for example, must also include electrical outlets, a table and a place to sit in their lactation space.

And within each workforce, it’s important to keep all employees educated on lactation rights so that breastfeeding mothers know where and how to access private spaces to pump and so others can be flexible in their scheduling to accommodate anyone else on the team who may be breastfeeding.

Whether or not you’re a parent, it’s vital to foster a welcoming, flexible environment so that all employees can balance their personal and professional lives – and that starts with understanding that each employee will have different needs in order to thrive.