Breastfeeding Push Turns to Workplace Obstacles (Women's e news)

(WOMENSENEWS)--Carmen Letscher's maternity leave ends this week and she's anxious about going back to work.

Though she was able to breastfeed her daughter Lucy for three months, she's not confident that she will hit her goal of six months. The public relations company she works for has 500 employees, over three-quarters of whom are women, yet Letscher has never known anyone to breastfeed there. Her human resources department has found a spare office she can use as a makeshift lactation room. It's all hers; until they hire someone who needs the space.

"If I'm leaving my daughter in day care, I want to give her the best of everything, given the situation," Letscher said. "My goal is to breastfeed for another three months, but I'm apprehensive about my work schedule, finding a good place to pump and trying to pump discreetly. I can't feel bad if I don't make it to six months. If I have to supplement with formula, I'll have to be OK with it."

Letscher has reason to be apprehensive. Despite the well-known benefits of breastfeeding and a controversial breastfeeding campaign by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, breastfeeding time can be cut short by the challenges women face when they return to full-time work. The number of mothers who feel this push-pull continues to grow as the proportion of mothers in the work force increases.




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