A room of their own for breastfeeding moms…
August 7th, 2008One of the many memorable moments in Mama, PhD is this, from Jennifer Eyre White’s essay, “Engineering Motherhood,” in which she recounts working toward a Masters in Engineering as a new mom:
“For the first six months I’d race to school for class and race home for the next feeding. Sometimes [my husband] Frank would bring Riley to school to meet me, and I’d take her into the women’s bathroom and sit with her on the floor while she slurped like a piggy at the trough. One of the nice things about being a female engineer is that the bathrooms are always empty and peaceful.”
In her essay, “I Am Not a Head on a Stick,” Libby Gruner writes about the first semester back on the job after her second child was born:
“I remember little from that fall other than the constant fear that I’d forget to lock my office door while pumping.”
This week, Metro State College in Denver made all this unnecessary:
“Metro State, in accordance with the new workplace breastfeeding legislation, has created a room for students, faculty, and staff to use for the expression of breast milk. This room is a comfortable and private space where breastfeeding mothers can use their own personal pump for breast milk expression. There is also a refrigerator in this room that can be used for milk storage.”
Congratulations to all the moms and babies at Metro State, and now we look forward to hearing about the next school establishing such a space!
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