In the past few years, many actions have taken place to improve awareness and support for breastfeeding mothers returning to work and school. Many of these improvements at U-M have taken place during building renovations or new construction.
Recent examples across campus and the U-M Health System include the new School of Nursing building, the Institute for Social Research renovation, and a University Hospital South space conversion. Additionally, some buildings in the Health System are now using an online registration system, including the Cancer Center, Cardiovascular Center, Medical School, and UH South.
“Nursing students, faculty and staff work very hard in a challenging field, so we wanted their new school building to be a comfortable, relaxing home for them,” says School of Nursing Dean Kathleen Potempa. “Natural light and comfortable furniture is part of that, but so are progressive accessories and special-purpose spaces including well-designed lactation rooms. We are committed to providing all that we can for new mothers and families.”
”LSA has created many new and upgraded lactation rooms across campus to support working moms at U-M,” says LSA Facility Manager John Minier. “Our most recent effort was to work in partnership with the Work-Life Resource Center to create a private lactation space in the Modern Languages Building. We are very pleased with how it all came together.”
Although the university currently has 81 identified lactation spaces across our campuses, many women still struggle to find time and appropriate space for lactation. This can cause stress, anxiety and ultimately an early end to breastfeeding efforts when women return to work.
The Work-Life Resource Center is conducting a survey to learn where progress has been made and where additional efforts are needed. The survey can be accessed online and will be open until Aug. 12.
“Supporting mothers by providing appropriate lactation spaces makes a statement that we care deeply for our female faculty, staff, students and their families. It’s a sign of a supportive and inclusive environment,” adds Work-Life Programs Director Jennie McAlpine.
“It has a positive impact for the entire university community by improving productivity and morale, reducing sick time, and helping to lessen health care costs. Being thoughtful of employee needs is also a sound strategy for enhancing recruitment and retention.”
Learn more about lactation support through the Work-Life Resource Center.
Laura Denton
I am not a lactating mother but I facilitate many workshops for faculty on the Medical Campus. When I have workshops in BSRB and a mother needs a lactation room, she has to call a number, give them her name, department, unique name, etc. just to get the code to that room. Often this happens at new faculty orientation and it is the mother’s first day at UMMS. I feel asking for all of this information is an invasion of privacy and I don’t see why it is necessary. Are there that many people taking advantage of using these rooms who are not lactating? Once when I told the person on the other line that the faculty could not come to the phone, she finally decided to give me the code without the information but told me to never give the code to anyone else because she could be fired.