When I was newly pregnant with my first child, a colleague of mine had just returned to work from maternity leave. I got an email from her requesting that I cover the last 30 minutes of one of her classes that coincided with my planning period for the remainder of the school year so that she could go to the pumping closet to pump. 

I didn’t think much of it. I was happy to help out a new mom, and I knew it was important to her. What I didn’t understand at the time was why pumping would take so long.

And then I had a baby of my own, who I exclusively breastfed, and everything changed. 

“30 whole minutes for pumping?” transformed into “Only 30 minutes for pumping?! To walk all the way to the closet on the opposite side of our large building, set up all the pump parts, pump, store the milk properly, rinse off the parts, and make it back before the next class?!” 

Pumping for an entire year while at work was one of the most stressful things I have ever done. I wanted to breastfeed my daughter, and was lucky enough to be able to. I believed fully in the benefits of breastfeeding (not to mention the thousands of dollars we saved that year by not having to use formula), but actually executing this desire to breastfeed once I returned to work was a constant uphill battle, even with a supportive work environment. 

The truth is, though, many work environments are not supportive. 

Often, mothers have to demand their legal right to a pumping room and time to pump before it is given to them. 

One mom shared with me, “I had just gotten back from maternity leave and I didn’t want to lose my job or seem difficult. I tried to make it work without requesting designated time for pumping, but when I learned the only space they were going to offer me was a bathroom stall, I was done. Like, really? A bathroom stall? I can’t even begin to explain how unhygienic that is. And so demoralizing. So that was the end of mine and my baby’s breastfeeding journey.”

With nearly every single reputable medical group recommending breastfeeding as “the most effective way to ensure child health and survival,” should it be this difficult for working women in the 21st century to be able to both work and breastfeed their babies?

Another mom shared, “I was allowed to pump in my office with the blinds down, which I thought would be a great situation. I kept a sign on the door saying ‘Do not disturb,’ and I thought it was really convenient until the day a coworker walked in on me pumping. It was his embarrassment over the situation that made it ten times more embarrassing for me, too. 

I didn’t feel comfortable pumping in my office after that. For a while, I’d walk to the parking lot and pump in my car, but then it just became too stressful. I think it’s actually the stress of all that that impacted my supply. I didn’t get to breastfeed as long as I wanted to.” 

When I returned to work, there was a designated concession stand in the furthest part of our building where new moms are given a key for pumping. Although the closet wasn’t the most ideal or accommodating, I was thankful to at least have a space that wasn’t a bathroom stall. I became even luckier that year when Latched Mama decided to make it their community project to renovate the pumping closet at my school. 

All of the teachers who are new moms in my building now have a beautiful, comfortable space for pumping. But that is a gift that countless working new moms will not get to experience, as they have to fight for even 25 minutes to pump.

Instead of working moms having to fight for the basic right to provide both breastmilk and an income for their babies, maybe it is time for employees to ask how they can better support an essential portion of our workforce.