If Nursing Moms Don't Complain About Pumping at Work, No One Should
A Texas judge recently ruled that a woman wasn't discriminated against when she was fired from her job after asking her boss for a place to pump breast milk. Just before returning to work after her maternity leave, Donnicia Venters asked
the VP of the debt collection agency she worked at if she could be
provided with a private place to pump milk for her baby. Seems like a
reasonable question. But the answer she got was the opposite of
reasonable. The answer she got was, "Your job has been filled."
To add insult to injury, Judge Lynn Hughes just dismissed Venters' case, which was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying that she was not discriminated against because of pregnancy. See, as Hughes put it, "[Donnicia] gave birth on December 11, 2008. After that day, she was no longer pregnant, and her pregnancy-related conditions had ended."
Riiiight.
Technicalities, legalities, and other alities aside, I think we all know why Venters was given the boot: Because it's sooooo annoying for employers to have employees pumping breast milk on the job. Like, way more annoying than it is for the moms who have to do it.
When new moms return to work, a lot of things go through their heads. Yes, missing their children is among the nine billion thoughts up there, but so is doing a good job at their job. Moms who re-enter the workforce after having kids do so either because they need to for financial reasons or, plain and simple, they want to. In other words, they're in between a rock and a hard place: They want to prove themselves as being just as efficient workers as before, and they want to be the best moms they can be.
Of course, being a good mom means spending time with your baby. And, quite frankly, pumping cuts into that. Unless you have a job where your hours are a strict 9 to 5, odds are, you're going to be at the office a little bit later than you would have been because you took time out to pump. And that sucks. For the moms, not for the employers.
It's getting really tiresome hearing and reading about all these complaints/firings/whatever bosses, CEOs, and random, non-pumping workers are making. They're the people it affects the least. Pumping doesn't have anything to do with them. It's a hindrance for the moms who want to get home before their babies fall asleep. And you don't hear them complaining, do you?
Did you pump at work?
I'm a nurse and our hospital has a breastfeeding office. Big comfy chairs, big table, lots of wall sockets and a large fridge to keep milk in (although I would be leery to leave my milk somewhere other than my own department). There are at least 4 mothers at our hospital that use the room--we occasionally are all in there at the same time.
i did but only had to for a short time and i only worked like once a week.
my sister is a teacher and although she has always had really good supply (oversupply actually) she HATED pumping and decided to stop at work because it didnt hurt her supply to cut out the pumping sessions and there were many days that she was just too busy to have time. well the baby started cutting teeth, went on a nursing strike and between the lack of nursing and not pumping she has now been dealing with a clogged duct and it has been very painful for her. i think its unreasonable to expect woman to not have physical issues if they are not given the time to pump at work!
It REALLY sucked.
I put my milk in the fridge or freezer at work and coworkers got disgusted... So I couldn't do it anymore and had to run home to put it away.
I'm going back to work in a few weeks and hope I dont go through the same thing (different job, thankfully)
I did for all 4 of my children. I pumped probably for close to 6 years in total. I have my own office, and it was never an issue, even back in the dark ages of 1990. I bought my own refrigerator originally, and for my last child, I requesitioned one and work purchased it. When I was done with it, it went to a new employee who had special dietary needs.
I work in a small nursing home (just barely over the 50 employee requirement) when I was in the introductory class I asked the nurse giving it where I could pump (it was actually pretty funny, because it took her a moment to figure out what I meant.) she said she wasn't sure, but that I could try the bathroom and if that didn't work they would find something else. I had O/S, so did fine just using a manual.... Didn't need to set anything down, plug anything in, etc.
Since the facility was so small there was literally nowhere else private I could've pumped. I didn't push the issue, -because again, there was nowhere else- and because I was allowed all the breaks I needed (paid!) and if I couldn't do it during downtime the other girls covered for me with no issue.
I work in an office setting and have been pumping three times a day at work for the past 5 months. When I first came back from leave, I was given a special key to the "mother's room" for me to use as needed. That was nice, but difficult because I had to be pulled away from my work for up to an hour and a half a day. Now I have an office and don't have to leave my desk to do my thing. I have never been given a hard time about pumping at work luckily.
In ER with baby
- Cafe Jenn
on Feb. 13, 2012 at 9:48 AM