Supporting Your Breastfeeding Employees
Supporting nursing mothers has benefits for the employee and the employer, including decreased healthcare costs, decreased employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, increased employee morale and loyalty, and positive public relations.
When your employee returns to work from parental leave, she may be breastfeeding and need support and accommodations at work. The American Academy of Family Physicians have recommended that infants be breastfed for the first 12 months of life, and exclusively breastfed for the first six months.
Supporting nursing mothers has benefits for the employee and the employer, including decreased healthcare costs, decreased employee absenteeism, improved employee retention, increased employee morale and loyalty, and positive public relations.
Additionally, breastfeeding has numerous health benefits for mom and baby. Breastfeeding can help lower a mother’s risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, ovarian cancer, and breast cancer. Infants who are breastfed have reduced risks of asthma, obesity, type 1 diabetes, severe lower respiratory disease, ear infections, and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
There are certain arrangements that must be in place to accommodate nursing mothers. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) requires employers to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” Employers are also required to provide “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.”
Accommodating nursing mothers is not only important for health reasons, but also for employment law reasons. The federal court determined that breastfeeding is a medical condition related to pregnancy, which means employers are therefore required to accommodate it under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. Despite this ruling that took place in 2014, there has been an 800% increase in breastfeeding-related discrimination lawsuits in the last decade.
As a manager, you can provide more individualized support to help your employee meet her breastfeeding goals while still growing her career. And this support will also positively impact mother and baby's health, employee retention, and help your employer remain compliant with federal law.
Allow time for flexible schedules to accommodate for mothers to pump. Mothers will need to pump around every 3 hours, for around 20 minutes per session (and time to get to and from a mother's room). If possible, allow her to make up time early or later in the day, from home, or through other creative means to get work done.
Get familiar with employer benefits and resources that will help her. Check with Human Resources to see if there are resources through insurance or other employer benefits that are helpful for breastfeeding moms.
Show your support. You can convey a positive and accepting attitude and help your team do the same.
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