While breast-feeding might seem more appropriately initiated by a mid-wife or
obstetrician, Rhode Island lactation consultant Kathy Moren, R.N. says it’s simply
good business for companies to provide these services on-site for female workers.
Not only are breast-fed babies "significantly healthier," but so are
their mothers, she said, a critical factor for companies interested in saving
on health care costs. "It’s a big financial bonus for employers," Moren
said, because the price of training replacements for mothers who don’t come back
to work is far higher than providing nursing mothers the space they need to breast-feed.
As part of the R.I. Breast-feeding Coalition, the state Department of Health hired
Moren, who calls her business, "Healthy Babies, Happy Moms," to introduce
businesses in the state to the notion of starting breast-feeding programs.
Moren started doing lactation consulting in Rhode Island a year ago June, and
recently becoming incorporated. While she also has clients in New York and Washington,
D.C., in Rhode Island so far she has signed on three – American Power Conversion,
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, and United HealthCare of New England.
Each of these companies was honored last week during the U.S. Surgeon General’s
Rhode Island visit to launch the national campaign, Blueprint for Action on Breast-feeding
(see related story, Page 7), for donating $5,000 to the breast-feeding coalition
and for committing to breast-feeding programs on-site.
At APC, for example, where they’re painting what will become their Mothers’ Room,
there are about 10 women who are either on or about to take maternity leave. "So
you can see, for them," the cost is well worth it, Moren said, although most
Rhode Island employers she approached about starting breast-feeding programs at
work quickly vetoed the idea, "so there is a definite negative feeling out
there."
"The business community isn’t always tuned into the fact that this is a good
idea," agreed Health Department Director Patricia A. Nolan, M.D.
Typically it strikes companies as provocative, or too costly, but the main thing
is "just setting aside a space," Nolan said, an area with accommodations
for nursing mothers to sit as well as a sink, electrical outlet and refrigerator
to store the milk. "It doesn’t have to be fancy."
The American Academy of Pediatricians now recommends that mothers breast-feed
for a year because of the benefits the child gains in cognitive development and
long term immune function, Moren said.
While it may be a radical concept for Rhode Island, providing "mothers rooms"
for nursing employees has become increasingly common across the country.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more mothers are returning to work within
a year after giving birth than ever before. In 1998, nearly 59 percent of new
mothers were working or looking for work, compared to 51 percent in 1988 and 31
percent in 1976 – the first year the Census tracked these numbers.
The Census Bureau’s Fertility of American Women report released in September showed
there were 2.2 million women with infants in the labor force in June of 1998,
compared to 865,000 in 1976.
Not all of those 2.2 million women are working 40-hour weeks, as the report showed
that with a tight labor market, more and more businesses are making it attractive
for new mothers to combine child rearing and employment, providing the option
of flexible schedules, telecommuting from home and running home-based businesses.
More businesses are also accommodating nursing mothers with private lactation
rooms, frequent pumping breaks and in some cases, consultation for pump rentals
and lactation consultant services, according to the Census Bureau report, and
some employers are even letting new mothers bring their babies to work, nursing
on demand when needed.
"I think most employers are trying to be much more family friendly,"
Moren said, willing to blur the lines between what had formerly been designated
as personal, in order to help employees "balance their family life and their
work life."
A recent study of Working Well Moms, the corporate lactation program at CIGNA,
showed that the company now saves about $240,000 a year in health care costs
for breast-feeding moms and babies.
By supporting employees who are breast-feeding, CIGNA officials say the company
also saves an additional $60,000 a year through reduced absenteeism.
Catherine Hawkes, assistant vice president of employee health at CIGNA, said
the lactation program makes sense at the company since nearly 80 percent of
their workforce are women, with the average age of 35. "With the cost savings
this program has a clear business benefit while also benefiting our employees,"
Hawkes said, as well as reflecting "positively on our commitment to employee
well-being."
More than 1,000 women have enrolled in Working Well Moms since its inception
in 1995, and more than 70 percent of women enrolled were still nursing once
their babies were six months old, compared to the national average of about
20 percent of employed new mothers, Hawkes said.
Getting pumped for work
As a lactation consultant it’s Moren’s job to help employers determine their
breast-feeding needs – the number of pregnant employees in a given year, for
example, and the size and type of room they’ll need.
While some businesses go as far as purchasing beat pumps for their valued female
employees, Moren also provides a line of breast pumps that companies can rent,
the latest and most efficient models available including "double pumps."
Each nursing mother has her own individual attachment, "so no milk should
come in contact with the pump itself," Moren said. After the milk is pumped,
it is stored in bottles or plastic disposable bags, and refrigerated or even
frozen.
Moren also teaches breast-feeding classes and provides counseling whenever needed
to future mothers, especially those who are first-time moms.
She also tries to raise awareness of breast-feeding benefits in co-workers,
who often complain about nursing mothers spending too much time away from the
job, although according to Moren "it really only takes 10 minutes."
In a normal 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift a woman might have to pump every two to three
hours, or three to four times in a workday, which isn’t much different from
taking normal breaks, Moren said.
The issue, she said, is that for many mothers returning to work is not a choice,
but a necessity, and it’s lower-income working mothers and those in less specialized
jobs that are apt to have less leeway to breast-feed at work.
But with the U.S. Surgeon General’s new Blueprint for Action on Breast-feeding,
an educational initiative that seeks to increase the percentage of American
mothers who breast-feed, the time may come when a women will no longer have
to choose whether to go back to work or breast-feed her baby, Moren said.
"They’re kind of thinking along the lines of Just Say No to Drugs,"
only in this case it’s more like "just say yes to breast-feeding."
