tonya wright

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>chatadict2t@... has recommended this article from
>The Christian Science Monitor's electronic edition.
>----------------------------------------------------------------------

>>Click here to read this story online:
>http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0805/p14s01-wmwo.html
>
>
>Headline: Firms make room for maternal act
>Byline: Kathryn Tyler Special to The Christian Science Monitor
>Date: 08/05/2002

>This month, Emily Resa will return from maternity leave to her job as a
>product engineer for DaimlerChrysler in Detroit. She is among the 2.2
>million women with infants under age 1 now in the US labor force - a
>record high.
>
>But unlike many mothers who work outside the home, she won't have to
>give up breast-feeding her new daughter.
>
>DaimlerChrysler is one of the growing number of employers who have
>workplace lactation policies and nursing-mothers' rooms.
>
>"It's great that they have a room," says Ms. Resa. Otherwise, "where
>would you pump? I wouldn't like pumping in the bathroom."
>
>In fact, that's where many working mothers go to express their baby's
>milk, a move that can be unsanitary, as well as uncomfortable.
>
>"A lot of women don't have their own offices. Many have cubicles and
>there's not a lot of privacy. Most women wouldn't feel comfortable
>pumping in a cubicle," says Kim Cavaliero, spokeswoman for La Leche
>League International, a nonprofit breast-feeding support group based in
>Schaumburg, Ill.
>
>Perhaps that explains why 68 percent of women breast-feed their infants
>after birth, but only 31 percent breast-feed after six months, despite
>the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendation that infants be
>breast-fed for at least a year.
>
>"Woman face social ostracism, people not understanding that
>breast-feeding is a health choice," says Elizabeth Baldwin, an attorney
>who specializes in breast-feeding and the law, in North Miami Beach,
>Fla. "Sometimes they find themselves having to choose their job over
>breast-feeding."
>
>Finding a private place to pump is only one of the many challenges that
>new mothers face when they return to work. They also may be forced to
>confront misinformed co-workers whose reactions vary from indifference
>to harassment.
>
>"Our society sexualizes women's breasts," says Ms. Cavaliero, so it
>makes some people uncomfortable, even when the woman isn't pumping in
>front of them. "Most women breast-feed in a very discreet manner."
>
>If a co-worker makes a derogatory comment about pumping, Cavaliero
>suggests, "Say 'I'm pumping for my child's nutrition.' Try to educate
>the person. If the person is going to be ignorant and rude, and
>education doesn't work, talk to the supervisor."
>
>Corner-office concerns
>
>For some women, it is the supervisor who is not supportive.
>
>Part of that disapproval may stem from concerns about how long it will
>take for an employee to pump. Representatives at companies with
>lactation programs say some supervisors worry that the employee will be
>gone for an hour at a time. But, experts say, that's inaccurate. "Most
>women take two 15-minute breaks plus lunch to pump," says Baldwin.
>
>Even so, it is sometimes difficult to find time away from the job to
>pump. Factory workers find it next to impossible to take unscheduled
>breaks, while white-collar workers struggle with other time conflicts,
>such as meetings.
>
>If a meeting is scheduled during the time an employee would normally be
>expressing milk, she faces a dilemma: miss the meeting or disrupt her
>baby's milk supply. If a woman doesn't express milk regularly, her milk
>supply decreases and, eventually, dries up.
>
>In June, Sharon Cebulski, a fifth-grade teacher at Glengary Elementary
>School in Commerce Township, Mich., gave birth to her second child. She
>is worried about how she will continue to breast-feed once the school
>year begins again in September.
>
>"With my first baby, when I went back to work, he got formula in the
>daytime [because it was difficult to pump breast milk at work]. But I
>was still able to breast-feed him when I came home from work and at
>night," says Ms. Cebulski. "But with this baby, I don't know. In
>October, I am supposed to go to an overnight camp with my students for
>a week. I don't know how I am going to continue breast-feeding."
>
>Making 'reasonable efforts'?
>
>Legislation in six states, including Minnesota and California, already
>require employers to make reasonable efforts to provide unpaid break
>time and a room where employees can express milk.
>
>Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D) of New York has introduced a bill which would
>clarify the Pregnancy Act of 1978 to protect a woman's right to
>breast-feed or express milk during the workday, but it is still being
>reviewed in a House subcommittee.
>
>Still, only 16 percent of employers provide "lactation rooms,"
>according to a 2001 benefits survey by the Society for Human Resource
>Management.
>
>Breast-feeding advocates say businesses cannot afford not to offer help.
>
>"What some companies don't realize is that setting up a lactation room
>is really good for business," says Cavaliero. "Mothers and babies are
>healthier, that saves on insurance and [means] fewer absent days for
>the mom. More mothers return to work after having their baby, so the
>company doesn't have to recruit and train new employees."
>
>
>
>
>(c) Copyright 2002 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.
>
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