Just because you’re returning to work doesn’t mean you have to stop breastfeeding. There is currently a worldwide effort to create baby-friendly environments in hospitals, communities, and workplaces. Employers are beginning to realize that women with small children are now the fastest-growing segment of the female work force; they’re also realizing that by creating an environment that is more open to breastfeeding, fewer absences will result from childhood illnesses or mothers’ infections from insufficient breast emptying.

Alas, the baby-friendly workplace doesn’t exist for all women, and so this chapter explores how to make breastfeeding work despite a baby-hostile environment and includes suggestions for lobbying your employer for better conditions for breastfeeding mothers. Finally, alternatives are discussed that every working breastfeeder should consider before returning to work.

THE BABY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACE

Companies that adopt baby-friendly policies will not only save money and increase productivity but will actively contribute to lowering federal deficits and protecting natural resources.

Women who breastfeed as long as possible will have more protection against breast and ovarian cancer, which will save health-care systems millions of dollars. Encouraging breastfeeding reduces the industrial contaminants released in the manufacture of formula and the materials used to package that formula.

Babies who breastfeed for as long as possible will suffer from fewer illnesses, which will reduce health-care costs and significantly reduce absenteeism, creating a more productive workforce. Finally, since breastfeeding delays ovulation, it acts as a natural contraceptive (albeit not 100 percent effective), helping to create longer gaps between pregnancies, resulting in fewer maternity leaves!

Overexposed

One of the most important challenges for a baby-friendly workplace is to eliminate toxins from the working environment. The easiest toxin to eliminate is secondhand smoke. Smoke-free workplaces are therefore better places to work in than smoke-filled workplaces.

Chemicals used in the workplace that are classified as hazardous by the appropriate government bodies must be publicized to all employees, detailing the relevant components, hazards, and handling instructions specific to that hazard. This enables working mothers to decide whether to stop breastfeeding when they return to work, to stop working to continue breastfeeding, or to find another job in a hazard-free environment. Of course, many hazardous chemicals will have more serious consequences for pregnant women than for breastfeeding women: and in some cases, those chemicals may damage future fertility. Tables 9-1, 9-2, 9-3, and 9-4 list known hazards to breastfeeding, fertility, and pregnancy, but while they can provide a general guideline to determine whether substances in your workplace will interfere with breastfeeding, they cannot substitute for a discussion of your concerns with your doctor before you stop breastfeeding. Keep in mind that all foreign compounds that appear in your blood also appear in your breast milk. Yet toxin exposure is less critical during breastfeeding than it is during pregnancy, especially during the first trimester.

Keep in mind that there is only limited documentation that concerns the symptoms, consequences, or lack of consequences of exposing babies to various toxins through breast milk. With the growing demand for this information, however, La Leche League International offers a search service for both toxicological and pharmacological substances and their effects on breastfeeding. In Canada, the Toxicological Index database (Infotox), open to Americans and Canadians, provides peer-reviewed information concerning chemicals identified in the workplace that may appear in breast milk; 5,500 substances are included, of which 2.7 percent have been recognized as being transferred by milk.

Various drug and poison hotlines (listed locally) offer considerable information on toxins affecting breast milk. Specific concerns can also be explored through the NIOSH-TIC database, maintained by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), available on disk at various university and public libraries; NIOSH Information Dissemination can be accessed directly by calling (513) 533-8287. Finally, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia can be consulted at (404) 639-3311.

Is Your Employer Mother-Friendly?

The following human-resources policies are associated with workplaces that are both baby- and mother-friendly as well as human-friendly. Every employee, regardless of sex or parental status, will benefit from the following:

1. Parental leave policies. This means maternity-leave benefits ranging from six weeks to six months after the baby is born. Some, none, or all of the leave may be paid by your employer, but the important part of this policy is that you can’t be fired or laid off for taking this leave, and that your job is secure when you return.

2. Flexible working hours. This can mean a variety of options, including banking time during off-peak hours; tailoring a shift or schedule that works better for you; part-time schedules; job sharing; and longer breaks when necessary.

3. Affordable infant and child care at or near the workplace. Often day-care facilities are offered free or at a reduced cost to employees. Some companies even provide transportation to and from the facility, but this is indeed rare.

4. Adequate breaks during the workday. Frequent short breaks are perfect for women who need to pump or express milk. For everyone else, they contribute to stress-reduction and greater productivity.

5. Comfortable, private on-site facilities. These are private rooms or quarters employees can go to for expressing or pumping breasts; resting due to illness (menstrual cramps, migraines, ulcers); meditation or stress relief; or even stretching during the workday. These facilities need not be luxurious, and can take the form of a “rest room” (what old-fashioned washrooms used to have), consisting of a private room within a men’s or ladies’ washroom that has a small cot or comfortable couch, first-aid kits, and so on. Both men and women should have equal access to such facilities.

6. Tolerance regarding gender, lifestyle preference, and race. That means no jokes about breastfeeding and pregnancy; no discrimination for any other reason, either.

7. A clean workplace. All employees, particularly those who are breastfeeding, have the right to clean washrooms and smoke- and hazard-free environments.

8. Publicized information regarding employee rights and policies. All workers should understand their rights regarding leave policies, hazards, and so on.

9. Access to public-health information. This includes information on matters such as breastfeeding, nutrition, safe sex, AIDS, and so on. Phone numbers for various organizations (AIDS hotline, or breastfeeding or cancer support groups, for example) are also useful. This information is neither difficult nor costly to assemble and can greatly contribute to health prevention measures, ultimately raising productivity in the workplace.

Price Waterhouse is one example of what a mother-friendly (or baby-friendly) workplace can provide. It has partnered with Sanvita, a division of Medela (which manufactures breastfeeding equipment and supplies) to provide a full, free, breastfeeding program to all employees who are nursing. The program provides employees with a thirty-minute prenatal education phone call with a professional lactation consultant during the last trimester of pregnancy; six weekly outreach telephone calls from a lactation consultant beginning three to five days after birth; as well as unlimited calls to a lactation consultant during maternity leave and during the first four months after returning to work. That’s not all. The company will subsidize the cost of the breast pump offered to program participants, and many Price Waterhouse locations may begin offering “mothers’ rooms” designed for mothers who need a private place to express or pump. Kinda makes you want to become an accountant!

If you’re in favor of some or all of the policies above but your current workplace is still stuck in the 1950s, you may be able to help change your workplace to create some friendlier policies that all of your coworkers can enjoy. Many companies actively solicit employee suggestions regarding these matters through open forums, suggestion boxes, and questionnaires. Here are some other ways you can solicit change:

1. Start a group or network of current and former breastfeeders in your own workplace. Together, draft a proposal for friendlier employee policies and submit it to your employer. Include sections in the proposal that clearly outline the benefits to employers of friendlier policies, such as less absenteeism, greater productivity, and so on.

2. There are laws in place to protect you from discrimination as a result of pregnancy or breastfeeding. Make sure your employer is aware of the legislation in place to protect you.

3. Write an article for your employee newsletter about what constitutes a mother- and baby-friendly workplace. Or circulate a memo about your concerns to all employees.

4. Create alliances with international labor federations, and use breastfeeding rights as an entry point for campaigns on human rights, gender equity, and child survival.

5. Alert occupational health workers to the importance of breastfeeding.