Workplaces nurture nursing moms

When she went back to work after having a baby in early 2007, nursing mother Renae Sharp had to express her breast milk in a shower stall in the company bathroom.

"There was no electrical plug, so they rigged an extension cord to run from a hole in the ceiling,” said Sharp, a supervisor at a local company. "I sat in a folding chair with cleaning supplies at my feet and the door was so thin, and pump so loud, that anybody else in the bathroom could hear.”

A 2006 Oklahoma law requires employers to allow nursing mothers the ability to express milk during lunches, breaks and other unpaid times. But there’s no mandate that employers provide breaks or a private room.

In 2008, the state Health Department launched its Breastfeeding Works! initiative to encourage businesses to establish private lactation rooms and policies acknowledging the importance of breastfeeding. But only 26 workplaces, mostly health-care related, have been recognized as breastfeeding-friendly and working moms continue to face difficulties.

Roseanne Smith, breastfeeding coordinator for the state’s Women, Infants and Children’s program, has fielded about 30 work-related complaints and knows there are numerous unreported ones.

The new boss of one warehouse employee told her she no longer could pump in the bathroom, so she pumped in her car. But then the boss banned workers from going to their cars during breaks. Another woman worked at a convenience store and had no one to relieve her.

Smith offers to follow up with employers, but women faced with losing their jobs often don’t want her to.

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