Less Than Half of Breastfeeding Mothers Have Legally Required Pumping Accommodations At Work

Less Than Half of Breastfeeding Mothers Have Legally Required Pumping Accommodations At Work During my second year of grad school while in a training as a teacher’s assistant, I sat on the floor under the bathroom sink during a break to pump breastmilk for my 3-month-old son while other grad students went to the bathroom, sidestepped me to wash their hands and occasionally gave me a puzzled or sympathetic look. It was the only outlet I could find during the brief break we had, and I still returned to the training after everyone else, hoping the milk sitting in my portable lunchbox with an icepack wouldn’t spoil before I got home. Based on a completely unscientific poll on social media, my experience was both typical and far from the worst of it among breastfeeding moms returning to work after their child’s birth.