Working mothers with infants sometimes face a myriad of barriers in balancing work with home life. For some, especially hourly and lower-wage workers, that includes access to a workplace lactation room.
Corporate Voices for Working Families, in partnership with Abbott Nutrition, Working Mother Media and others, now offers a Web site providing information on creating workplace lactation programs.
A 2008 survey by Working Mother Magazine reports that more than one-third of employers cite scheduling conflicts and lack of dedicated lactation rooms as serious barriers to implementing lactation programs for hourly and lower-wage employees.
"It's clear that workplace lactation programs benefit employers. When women breastfeed, babies and mothers may be healthier, they may miss less work-time, and employee satisfaction and productivity can increase," asserts Donna Klein, president and founder of Corporate Voices for Working Families, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy group.
The organization also contends that onsite lactation rooms not only increase employee morale, loyalty and retention, but also provide an ROI. For every $1 employers invest in workplace lactation programs, they can gain back $3 in reduced health care costs.
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