Office As A Lactation Location

Office As A Lactation Location


PUBLIC relations exec Sonya Rendigs does it in the ladies' room.
Scientist Katie Brennan found an empty office and did it there.
And when writer Diane Brady needed to pump breast milk for her infant son
and daughter, she did it in her glass-walled office at Business Week -
behind a Japanese screen.

"I'm sure some of the guys were snickering, 'there she goes again,' but
you've got to do what you've got to do," Brady says, adding that she was
luckier than a colleague whose male boss called out "moo" when she went to
pump in her office.
Even in a relatively tolerant town, many working moms say it's a battle to
nurse their kids - a contention the numbers support.
The number of women who breast-feed for at least six months is at an
all-time high, according to a new survey released by the formula-maker Ross
Products.
But breast-feeding rates for full-time working mothers are about 25 percent
below those of stay-at-home moms.
"The corporate world is not geared up for people who nurse at work," says
Rendigs, who works at the Mandarin Hotel.
"It's still unacceptable to leave a meeting that has gone late - even if
milk is dripping underneath your jacket. I'm fortunate my boss is a working
mom who understands."

But a growing number of New York companies - at current count, 19 major
firms - have nursing stations for employees.
Once a day, Madeleine Rice, director of U.S. equities, sales and trading for
Deutsche Bank, leaves the trading floor for a private room where she and her
colleagues go to express their milk - without having to hide in the
bathroom, as nearly a third of nursing workers do.
Deutsche Bank's center offers a refrigerator, libraries and free kits with
pumping attachments. A monthly lecture series for begins in January.
"We started our program five years ago because more women are nursing now
and they need a place to go," said Denise Montana, vice president of
Deutsche Bank's U.S. Women's Initiatives.

It's definitely not a milk klatsch - the atmosphere is every bit as
businesslike as the trading floor.
"There's no time to hang out and chit chat. Work is really busy," Rice says.
"The whole process takes half an hour. I'm orderly in the way I pump."
Similar stations are found in the Manhattan offices of Avon, American
Express, Ernst & Young, Pfizer, Citigroup and others.
J.P. Morgan offers a $50 donation towards a portable pump, and keeps gels on
hand "to ease the process," said Lola Holness, a human resource vice
president.
"Companies save money and valuable employees if they provide services for
new moms," said Susan Lapinski, executive editor of Working Mother magazine,
who notes that nursing moms generally have healthier kids and take 27
percent fewer sick days to care for themselves and their children.
Some lactation rooms even have rocking chairs and blankets, and experts on
hand for free phone consultations.
Others aren't as high tech. Brady's Japanese screen inspired Business Week
to create a nursing area, of sorts: the magazine bought the barrier from her
and put it in the ladies' room.
"It saves everyone else from having to do the same thing," Brady says.

Nina wrote:


It's definitely not a milk klatsch - the atmosphere is every bit as
businesslike as the trading floor.
"There's no time to hang out and chit chat. Work is really busy," Rice says.
"The whole process takes half an hour. I'm orderly in the way I pump."
Similar stations are found in the Manhattan offices of Avon, American
Express


*g* would be very ironic if AmEx didn't have a pumping room, wouldn't it?

Dawn

Nina was all, like:
Office As A Lactation Location
snip

Where did this come from?

--
z e l d a b e e @ p a n i x . c o m
http://NewsReader.Com/

Oh heck...
http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/en...097195100.html

"zeldabee" wrote in message
...
Nina was all, like:
Office As A Lactation Location
snip

Where did this come from?

--
z e l d a b e e @ p a n i x . c o m
http://NewsReader.Com/