How to Accommodate Breastfeeding at Work
pumpspotting Founder and CEO Amy VanHaren breastfeeding and working
There are countless ways mothers have earned the moniker of multitaskers. Among them is working and breastfeeding. With most U.S. mothers breastfeeding their babies, lactation accommodations at work are not only mandated by law but also vital to employers’ talent strategies. The business case for breastfeeding support includes reduced turnover, sick leave and health care claims for both baby and mom, while increasing retention and productivity.
breastfeeding and working: the basics
A feeding parent needs to express milk every ~2 hours, either by breastfeeding or pumping: at least as often as their baby eats. That demand adds up to roughly 1,800 hours per year, which is the equivalent of a full-time job. The frequency of milk expression, which usually involves a breast pump, is necessary to produce enough food for baby as well as to avoid infection.
A clean, safe and private room must be made available. At minimum, it should be equipped with a comfortable chair, a table and an electrical outlet.
Accommodating a baby-feeding worker, however, is about more than facilities for milk expression. Feeding a baby with one’s body is demanding of a person physically, mentally, emotionally and logistically. So, it stands to reason that the thorough accommodation of breastfeeding workers not only includes safe, comfortable places to nurse/pump, but also helps to remove the barriers of isolation, clinical challenges, unsupportive workplace culture and weak policy.
How to accommodate breastfeeding at work
To thoroughly accommodate lactating employees, a combination of thoughtful documentation and action are needed. Specifically, any workplace fully accommodating lactating employees will have policy, leadership and ways of working that support caretakers. Some of the most successful employers are checking their work with regular internal audits.
Community
Breastfeeding parents are needed every two hours, whether with baby or away, nursing or pumping. Because baby-feeding workers must leave what they are doing to express milk, they might have to leave meetings or pass up on important social opportunities at work. That’s not only demanding, but isolating. Reduce isolation when you help connect your working parents with a network of peers - in your organization and beyond - to support, encourage and battle loneliness.
provide workplace policy to support employees
Workplace policies guide daily procedure, ensure compliance with laws, guide decision making and build mutual understanding among employees. Your workplace milk expression policy is an opportunity to set your intention around, and make known, your commitment to healthy families and communities. In addition to stating the organization’s compliance with laws and regulations, your policy should offer guidelines that establish expectations and guide behavior. While your facilities team may spearhead the lactation-designated locations - we call them ‘pumpspots’ - you can also list basic standards, to preemptively address questions that employees may have.
In addition to a workplace milk expression policy, be sure that your diversity and inclusion policy includes all caregivers and include family responsibilities in your anti-discrimination policies.
set the tone with leadership
While policies state the position of the organization, the words and actions of leaders and managers contribute to employee experiences, expectations and opportunities.
Educate supervisors about what constitutes caregiver discrimination and which groups might be affected. Impress upon supervisors that personnel actions must be based on legitimate job-related criteria, business needs and individual performance rather than stereotypes.
Example: It would be caregiver discrimination to deny an employee with young children a promotion to a position that requires extensive travel because the manager assumes that s/he will not want to travel.
According to The Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, “Most people are not aware that they harbor biases such as the bias that mothers are not as competent as nonmothers, men who are actively involved in their family lives aren’t valued team players, and workers with sick parents who require care won’t be reliable or productive. Research shows that once people are aware of these biases, they can stop themselves from acting on them.”
Include these items in performance goals for managers. Hold those in leadership and management accountable for taking affirmative steps to support, promote and retain talented employees with family responsibilities by adding this objective to their annual performance goals.
want to learn more?
5 Things You Need to Create a Breastfeeding-Supportive Culture
Experts
Challenges are common when feeding a baby. IBCLC-certified lactation consultants assess and treat both common and serious nursing problems, including how to increase milk supply, find the best nursing position and manage breastfeeding pain. Offer on-demand support at every stage of the journey and you’ll not only remove barriers to her success but guard her health and wellbeing while minimizing absenteeism.
Emphasize the importance of recruitment and retention
Put an emphasis on the recruitment and retention of talent as a key business objective. It’s documented that when employees trust their managers and unnecessary conflicts between work and personal lives are removed, employees are more loyal and productive.
With Millennials and Gen Xers raising children, and Baby Boomers caring for aging parents, stake your claim as a family-friendly employer. Establish flexible working arrangements: encourage asynchronous work and embrace four-day work weeks. Include flexible work arrangements in your company policies, to include personal leave and reentry for those who are returning from leave. Introduce support programs for parents and for employees who take care of elderly parents, breastfeed or are raising young children. You’ll be generating loyalty and goodwill, reducing costly turnover and minimizing the risk of lawsuits.
Facilities
There are a wide range of milk expression facilities. The particulars often depend on the size of an organization and the amount of demand from the workforce. Some facilities are permanent, dedicated spaces with all the bells and whistles. Others are pop-ups, such as the office of a manager who is always willing to give up the space for a worker in need.
Whatever the specs, provide a private, clean space that is not a bathroom for parents who need to pump. This includes a chair, a table to place a pump on, an electrical outlet and a locking door. Include disinfectant wipes and close proximity to a sink and refrigerator. Points for creative solutions!
test your theories: run internal fire drills
If establishing policies and making decisions about the position of the organization - and its leaders - is the first step, then the next is to try your policies in practice to determine their soundness.
Conduct periodic self-audits of the company's hiring, promotion, termination, compensation and assignment systems. Are employees moving through your organization regardless of whether they have family responsibilities? If not, why not? What changes can be made to procedure, to alter the outcome?
Review the various job roles within your organization and take stock of what types of employees are doing what types of work. Are there members of the executive team with family responsibilities? According to WorkLife Law, “If your top ranks, most important work, and most desirable assignments include only non-caregivers such as women without children and men who either don’t have children or who have someone at home to take care of family work, then you can surmise that your company has some biases against caregivers. (Note: this is also a good practice to see if your company’s diversity program is working – if no minority or female or flexible workers are in the highest and best positions in your company, your policy may benefit from some tweaking or better implementation.)”
Change the way you work
Perhaps the pandemic brought it to our attention: there are seemingly unending reasons to examine how work is performed in our organizations and to rethink how it gets done. When you consider that two out of five of workers have underage children at home, however, it pays to determine the best family-friendly actions you can take - and benefits you can offer - to support your working parents.
It may be helpful to consider that discrimination against caregivers may rest on legacy workplace models that presume desirable employees are those who can work 40 or 60 hours per week without taking time for child bearing or child rearing. Those expectations are less likely to be in harmony with today’s top talent. Supervisors who seek and promote only those workers who can meet traditional expectations increase a company’s exposure to family responsibility discrimination claims.
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It’s powerful to support your working parents. You can attract, retain and engage talent, all while investing in your employer brand.
For only $499 annually, use pumpspotting’s turnkey platform to offer everything your employees need to be successful at work and home. You’ll receive unlimited access to pumpspotting’s mobile app for employees as well as the Employer Toolkit which includes everything you need to activate, implement and promote your breastfeeding-supportive workplace.