VALLEY BUSINESSES SUPPORTING BREASTFEEDING EMPLOYEES
Why should you think about becoming a breastfeeding friendly employer?
Setting up a room for mothers to pump breastmilk
Studies show that employers who provide a breastfeeding-friendly workplace reap the rewards, including:
Breastfeeding employees miss work less often because breastfed infants are healthier.
Breastfeeding lowers health care costs.
Breastfeeding support helps employers keep their best employees so that less money is spent hiring and training new employees.
Breastfeeding employees who are supported in the workplace report higher productivity and loyalty.
Supporting breastfeeding employees creates a positive public image.
http://www.usbreastfeeding.org
Breastfeeding employees miss work less often because breastfed infants are healthier.
Breastfeeding lowers health care costs.
Breastfeeding support helps employers keep their best employees so that less money is spent hiring and training new employees.
Breastfeeding employees who are supported in the workplace report higher productivity and loyalty.
Supporting breastfeeding employees creates a positive public image.
http://www.usbreastfeeding.org
Ways that you can have a supportive environment
Mother feeding baby at work
- There are many ways in which employers can support breastfeeding women in the workplace. Try some!
- Create a workplace environment that supports and respects a woman’s decision to breastfeed. Recognize that breastfeeding is a benefit to the workplace and encourage that recognition in others.
- Develop a written policy that states your company’s support of a woman’s choice to breastfeed her infant(s) and describes the worksite accommodations and/or benefits available.
It could be a small room
- Make the policy part of your company’s written policies on parenting and/or maternity benefits.
- Inform all pregnant employees/parents of this policy as early in their pregnancy as possible.
- Inform new employees of this policy or give them a copy as part of new employee orientation.
- Provide a 20- to 30-minute break, both morning and afternoon, for the woman to (a) nurse her infant or (b) express her milk. If necessary, adjust the beginning and/or ending time of work to accommodate these breaks. For example, if two 15-minute breaks are allowed to all employees, the breastfeeding employee starts work 10 minutes earlier and leaves work 10 minutes later to allow for two 25-minute breaks.
Or a suite!
- Make a private area available for nursing or expressing milk. It should be quiet, clean and have enough room for a comfortable chair.
- Provide a place for storing breast milk. If a refrigerator is not available, a safe place to keep a cooler is sufficient.
- Provide a clean, safe water source and sink somewhere within the worksite for washing hands and rinsing out any breast pump equipment.
Tips from The Business Case for Breastfeeding
For Employers - Nursing Room Guidelines & Suggestions for Furnishing a Workplace Nursing Area
Basic Model
Basic Model
- Clean room that locks from the inside
- Electrical outlet (standard 110V)
- Comfortable chair
- Small table or flat surface to hold breast pump
- Room located near sink with hot running water
- Disinfecting wipes
- Paper towels and soap dispenser by the sink with the hot running water
- Employee rents or owns her own breast pump
- Employee provides her own pump attachment kit
- Employee stores breast milk in employee refrigerator or personal cooler
- Wastebasket
- Clean room that locks from the inside
- Electrical outlet (standard 110V)
- Comfortable chair and footstool
- Small table or flat surface to hold breast pump
- Room has sink with hot running water
- Disinfecting wipes
- Paper towels and soap dispenser by the sink
- Employer pays for rental of hospital grade multi-user electric pump
- Employer subsidizes pump attachment kit
- Employer provides personal coolers for storing breast milk
- Wastebasket
- Wall clock
- Bulletin board for educational materials or communications
- Educational resources available
- Telephone available
- Clean room that locks from the inside
- Electrical outlet (standard 110V)
- Comfortable chair and footstool
- Small table or flat surface to hold breast pump
- Room has sink with hot running water
- Disinfecting wipes
- Paper towels and soap dispenser by the sink
- Employer provides for a personal electric pump or hospital-grade multi-user electric pump. Note: Consider including an electric personal breast pump in your employee health benefit package.
- Employer provides pump attachment kit
- Employer provides small refrigerator in nursing room for storing breast milk
- Wastebasket
- Wall clock
- Bulletin board for educational materials or communications
- Educational resources available
- Telephone available
- Internet access