National Breastfeeding Month
and What It Means for Your Organization
Imagine that you’d like to have a cup of coffee to start your work day. You do the only sensible thing: pack up your coffee maker and all the necessary accessories (filters, coffee grinder, beans, creamer, sugar, spoon, pot, mug, and dish soap and a sponge to clean it all up when you’re done), place them in a bag, and head to the office. You can’t make coffee in your professional attire, of course — what if you have a spill? — so you try to find a space to change into your bathrobe and plug in the machine. The only spot with ample privacy is the bathroom, so you find the cleanest corner you can and get to work.
You’ve got a presentation in 20 minutes, so you have to hurry, but you’ll also need to brew another pot in about 3 hours, so you’ve got to make sure you thoroughly wash your supplies and get them drying before round two. A coworker wanders in and rolls their eyes at you, clearly annoyed that you have all these coffee breaks while they’re picking up the slack. You’re not surprised — you’ve overheard break room jokes about the bags under your eyes getting more pronounced when it’s time to brew. You try to ignore them, but at this point, you’re no stranger to feeling uncomfortable.
After several minutes of undivided attentiveness to the various settings on the coffee maker required to ensure your cup of joe is piping hot and ready to go, you actually wind up making a little more than you need, so you have to pack up the excess and get it to a fridge before the meeting — or perhaps your machine malfunctions and you hardly make any coffee at all. You’re feeling simultaneously frazzled and totally defeated on the way to your big presentation.
This may seem like a lot of effort, but for pumping parents, this is a daily reality.
Why pump?
As the only industrialized nation without paid parental leave, many American parents choose to prolong lactation by expressing breast milk when they are away from their baby by pumping. Pumping is also an excellent option to provide breast milk for premature babies or infants with difficulty latching.
Breastfeeding, which offers benefits such as increased immune function for babies and reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers for lactating parents, functions on a supply and demand system: the lactating person’s body will only make the amount of milk that is called upon. As such, expressing milk every 2-4 hours is imperative for maintaining ample supply to meet a baby’s needs. Failure to express milk can result in painful illnesses such as blocked ducts, blisters, and mastitis, and yet 60 percent of women have experienced resistance from their employer when they needed time or space to nurse.
For employees that aim to offer breast milk to their child for at least two years after giving birth (as recommended by the World Health Organization), the challenges of breastfeeding and pumping can be mitigated by a supportive workplace.
The PUMP Act
Signed into law in 2022, the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act expanded protections to ensure protections for workers that need to express milk.
Employers must guarantee that breastfeeding individuals have “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk” as well as “reasonable break time” for at least a year after a child’s birth. This bipartisan act also offers increased legal recourse to parents who experience barriers to pumping in the workplace, including insufficient facilities and sexual harassment.
Previous legislation did not extend to workers who were not entitled to overtime pay, such as teachers, nurses, agricultural professionals, and retail workers, the new law increasing access to nearly 9 million working women of childbearing age.
Compliance and Beyond
While it is imperative from a legal perspective for organizations to ensure compliance with the PUMP Act, extending support to breastfeeding parents has innumerable cultural benefits as well. Alarmingly, half of women report maternity leave hindering their careers, and while most studies currently focus on the lactation experience of cisgender women, trans and non-binary individuals are also not exempt from this conversation. Companies that address this issue by creating a welcoming environment for new parents can not only retain talent but also unlock greater innovation and collaboration within their teams.
Small steps can make a huge difference: create a lactation room in your workplace that is comfortable, clean, well stocked with snacks, and equipped with a mini-fridge to store expressed milk, or offer remote work if your office does not have substantial space for nursing facilities. Facilitate generous break time policies and review them with management and pregnant employees to ensure alignment when new parents return to work. If a non-binary or transgender member of your team intends to pump after giving birth, proceed with an emphasis on compassion and inclusive terminology. Collaborate with a consultant from Culture Refinery to implement training on respectful language to avoid harmful microaggressions at the pumping parent’s expense. Plan meetings mindfully, allowing people that pump ample time to return to their workspace and prepare for team gatherings among their pumping schedule.
National Breastfeeding Month provides a valuable opportunity for a cultural wellness check for new parents in your organization. By showing care for the parents in your midst, you can create a more supportive and inclusive environment for all families. This not only benefits the emotional and physical well-being of families and their children, but also fosters a culture of empathy and understanding within your organization.
