So why do these babies that are breast feed need to be at WORK?????????

What is with all these goofy fkn browds!!

Titties & Beer ummmmmmm someone made a song like that!!

Google makes accommodations for all religions and medical circumstances and they are an extremely successful company with high rates of worker satisfaction and productivity because of that satisfaction. We have the knowledge of what does and does not work for a healthy society/workplace, lets do THAT and stop doing what does not work.

While I agree that a woman should absolutely be provided with a private place to pump / nurse at work, if it takes longer than the company's standard break time (usually 15 minutes, twice a day, or a lunch break), they should also be making up that time by staying later at work.

As for public nursing - have some modesty. The thing is, if these militant breast-feeders would just modestly nurse in public, no one would probably say a word. But many of these women just whip out their breast (I've seen it, and I have friends who have done it) because they want to "make a statement". It's utterly ridiculous and completely backfires on them when people get disgusted. Then the people who are disgusted want to make a scene and try to ban breastfeeding. And it turns into a big "thing" when if both sides had a little respect for each other, it would be a non-issue.

Breastfeeding is great for those who choose to do it. I take no issue with it. I don't expect a woman to hide in a bathroom stall. But I do believe in a modicum of modesty (something this country knows nothing about anymore) when you're doing it in public. At a restaurant, you can sit in a booth with a scarf lightly draped around you and likely no one will even know you're nursing, except possibly your server, who might figure it out. At a store, you can sit in a dressing room. It's not really that difficult to be modest about nursing your child.

There's plenty of room for both sides to be satisfied here, but instead, it's one big drama fit. Enough already.

Sometimes right and wrong is in a gray area. Sometimes it is black and white. We take our murderers and our child rapists and give them a warm place to sleep, clean food to eat, and clean water to drink. The ones that prepare their food are paid from our tax money in kichens paid for by tax dollars. However, so many people think it is somehow wrong to ensure the most innocent of those among us are given the best food, packaged in a clean area. We don't package criminals food in a bathroom. We pay full time wages to those who provide for the criminals. Yet somehow it is wrong to provide a clean area for mothers to express milk? It is wrong to give them time to do so?

I always wanted to breast feed @ work!

You're all missing the forest for the trees.

Women claim to be equal yet continue to demand concessions based on the fact that they are women.

And others do in fact pick up the work without compensation or equitable resiprocacity. After all if the work that women who take off for maternity leave need not be done while they were gone, then there would be no need for the position.

I come from a family of strong women. Most divorced. They didn't seek child support nor took out time from work to care for their children. Their caretakers did it. Were they poor yes, yet all their children were college educated and live upper middle class lives.

Equality demands equal abilities. Men have to leave home at home while they're at work. As long as women lack boundaries and insist on bringing the home into the workplace there will be controversy and an eventual backlash of some sort.

Its' also a new world order in the West due to science. Both breast feeding and childbearing have been made optional. No woman must have children nor choose to breastfeed. That's what people now see; that's why they see it as a lifestyle choice that shouldn't impact everyone else.

Then there's the issue of ettiquette in a world devoid of official rules of ettiquatte. There are many things in life that are natural to do but all are subject to time and place and form to go about it.

I recommend there be established rules of ettiquette that establish how women breatfeed and pump exceptable to all. There should be nothing wrong with women breastfeeding in public with appropriate decorum. Create elaborately embroderied cover clothes.

As to the workplace, be sure no one so much as forced to answer your phone while breastfeeding and/or pumping in an appropriate place or you will incur resentment that you most likely not be aware of but affects you non the less.

Oh, it's ok for the smokers to have extra breaks, but let's not give any to breast feeding mothers. Give me a break, IDIOTS.

So which is it - women need a nice quiet private place (paid for by their employer) to feed/pump at work (while being paid) yet the hoards at Target decide to flop them out as they stood in the middle of a retail store as strangers shopped.

I feel like the real underlying issue here is "why do breastfeeding mothers have to work?" Did you know that almost all other countries have paid maternity leave (except 4 countries, including the US). Their government PAYS them to stay home with their children. Raising a child is viewed as a very important career. Look it up.

Here in the US women go back to work because otherwise they can't afford to pay health insurance premiums. Yet another government shortfall here.

And yes, I am (currently, at this very moment) a breastfeeding mom. I will be going back to work as soon as my child is old enough to wean.....unfortunately.

All women have breasts and there's nothing obscene about them. All babies need to eat WHENEVER they are hungry.

Americans can be so immaturely Puritanical. Like God is embarassed at the sight of a female breast?

What is wrong with you people?

GROW UP. Breastfeeding is the most natural act on the damn PLANET.

I understand that breast feeding is natural but my question is are they bringing their babies to work? Since breast milk can be pumped and stored and fed to babies in bottles why would someone bring or have someone bring their baby to their place of employment? I do know some places have facilities but most do not.

This is one of those things where they are trying to take a good idea and make it a crime to not do it. I fully acknowledge that breastfeeding is what's best for a baby. But a law like this assumes on it's face a parity of circumstances in all businesses and lines of employment. It assumes every business can make space for private room where a woman can sit and pump multiple times during the work day. As the article notes, for a lot employers, that's simply not the case.

Where, for example, does your average urban starbucks have space for a breastfeeding room? Remember, it can't just be the bathroom. Stockroom won't work, either. Placing a chair in it takes up valuable storage space, plus you can't garuantee that no other employees will need to access it during the pumping break.

In business, every square foot counts. Creating a breast pumping room means you have space that's not retail floor space, not office space, and not storage space. Real compliance with this law would require carving out space that may not be used for years at a time if no women at a company get pregnant. All this law does is create more subtle discrimination against women because it makes hiring managers think about how much more expensive accomodating pregnancy has become. Of course, they will never say that, and in this job market, it's always easy to find someone to hire who will appear more qualified on paper.

Princessbride, your name says its all. If you can breast feed your child on your mandatory breaks, and not do it in an exposed public place so that people who are uncomfortable with it don't have to watch, be my guest. If you think you are entitled to extra time to do it, you are indeed a princess. people are forced to cover your time, just like when you take off for pediatric appointments, school plays and other child related BS. Hopefully your employer will fire you after the appropriate number of warnings. I smoke and take breaks on my break time, and yes, I have children. I just realize that my needs do not trump those of all others. Hopefully your spawn won't grow up like you. You're whats wrong with this country

What's the big deal here?

* Most businesses can set aside a room for mothers to express milk in private. Women are not going to bring infants to the job. This could be an issue for a place like a coffee house or a fast food joint that do not have a lot of extra space.

* Most women who nurse in public are very discrete about it. Leave them be.

* In any event, who is really offended by breasts? Most men seem obsessed with breasts, are they complaining? For women, they come as standard equipment, are they offended?

Personally I find women attractive and the idea of a nursing woman the embodiment of the love between mother and child ... something to celebrate, not to be ashamed of.

Why are they allowed to have their kids at work in the first place?

Am I missing something here? McDonalds, Starbucks and whoever else have employees with their infants behind the counter? Who's watching the kids while they work? We aren't getting the whole story here as usual.

WooHoo! Whip out those big-uns! Save the boobies!

Any form of cannibalism ought to be illegal, workplace or not.

"The point is, moms want to do what's best for their children, and for many moms, that means they have to work to support their child, and feed the baby what babies are supposed to be eating. The mom should not have to sneak around and feel like she is doing something wrong for pumping."

The "workplace" is just for that, WORK. Breastfeeding may be "the best" for the child but I'd rather not have to cover for you (coworker) in your absence while you're off on a personal "errand"....its just "something" to be held hostage by a nursing Nazi. Total bullsh*t.

I believe what most people take issue with is how to define "reasonable amount of time". And, what is considered "a place shielded from view and intrusion".

Both of these are open to interpretation by the employer.

I personally am grateful that my two breaks and my lunch have been enough to pump in a coworkers private office. I hope that other moms are as fortunate.

Why should a company have to pay a women to breastfeed? ALso - why is there a kid at work anyways? If you work at McDonalds, what business do you have bringing your kid to that environment to breast feed. As an employer, I Do not feel the government should tell me how to run my business. If I want the woman to clock out to feed her baby, then she can do it or quit and work somewhere else. But to pay somebody to take 20 mins to feed their kid, while paying another person to cover her slack is not only stupid, but wrong. What about the rights of the other employees, or the employer. God i hate this communist country we are becoming. All hail our goverment overlords and "protected class" mindless drones that empower them.

No one gave me breaks to bottle feed my baby when I was at work.

Yes, and back in the olden days we HAD to leave work at 6 months and not return until the baby as 3 months old. Nobody paid me that time off, and now mothers are allowed to deliver and return to work within extremely short periods of time. Times change. Go with the flow. Either that or somebody owes me for at least 5 months of lost wages.

OH - let me cover for you while you go pump, feed, etc - no problem - your time is clearly more valuable than mine. So glad I work for myself now, and am out of the corporate world (PS - didn't really need to hear about your boob soreness right before I had lunch, thanks)

I covered for a young mom to pump for almost a year and didn't think a thing of it. I was on the clock. When we quit caring about mankind womankind we're all in trouble. And you know as well as I do, wherever women gather we will hear all kinds of female stuff, and you know you enjoy it as much as the next guy gal when it's your turn. Hemorrhoids anyone? Menopause? Fibroid tumors? Urostomy bag?

What on Earth do we think breasts are for??

Be careful with a question like that. You might not get the answer you're expecting.

:-)

Current federal labor laws already provide for 2 breaks plus a lunch during an 8 hour shift. Is a break every 2 1/2 hours not enough? My kids didn't get fed more often than that when they were breastfed.

I'm glad you work for a place that gives breaks, but some of us don't work exactly eight hours a day. We get 30 minutes for lunch, but often don't get our whole 30 minutes due to job demands. Please don't structure the whole world after your experiences. Some of us need a little help from the law. I didn't nurse myself (another story), but I don't think most babies nurse at exactly fifteen minutes a pop.

Because you HAVE to pump

Absolutely.That's the way new mothers are built. We HAVE to go to the restroom too. Maybe we should take restrooms away from the naysayers, and see how long they would last each day if they had to hold in that natural body fluid.

My wife uses her office, with the door closed, during her prep-time between classes.

How lovely it would be to have a door, but some of us don't exactly have an office or a door, and some employers don't seem to want to provide a small room with a door.

Common sense and common courtesy would dictate that.

Surely you jest. Common sense and common courtesy in this day and age??? There is little enough to be found on this page.

It's very apparent most of you who say "pump while you're off the clock" don't know the ins-and-outs of breastfeeding. You have to pump while you are away from your baby in order to maintain your supply. The body is a "supply and demand" system. If you don't pump when baby is not nursing, then your body will learn to not produce as much, and then when the baby goes to feed, there won't be any. Moms pump at work to ensure that their babies have their milk while they cannot be with them. The reasons vary for why moms choose breastmilk over formula: health benefits, cost, convenience, or even baby preference. The World Health Organization currently reccommends that children are breastfed until 2 years of age. It's shocking how few American children are breastfed up until then. So many factors go into why a woman gives it up: lack of support from her partner and friends, lack of support from employer, or even low milk supply. Maybe also because she wants to give it up. But breastfeeding is one of the most difficult things I have ever done, and I would not have been able to do it the past nine months without the support of my husband, mother, friends, and employer.

Yes, my employer has a "mother's room" for pumping mothers complete with a sink, counter, refrigerator, chair & table. When I told my boss I would need this room, I knew it would take more time than my breaks would allow. So I told them I would be coming in early every day to ensure I actually worked the same number of hours. It's not only up to employers to comply, but for nursing mothers to respect the company's need to keep their business running. I'm not saying every nursing mother should do this - it just worked out for me. But I am saying that it is a collaboration between a company and employee. We all need to work together for the best interest of everyone. If the mom takes a few minutes out of her day to pump for her child, the child will (generally) have fewer illnesses, which means the mother will not miss as much work, and therefore the employer is benefitting too. So it's really in their best interest to ensure that a nursing mother has a suitable place to pump.

Wait, so these women are allotted a certain amt of time to breastfeed their babies? Am I allotted the same amt of personal time for whatever reason I need? No. Not that I oppose breastfeeding, but I don't know of many businesses that allow employees to bring their babies in the workplace, since they tend to be a distraction as a result of all the crying, etc. At my former place of employment, I had a co-worker who would bring her baby to work. At times when she would be called in to meetings, she would ask me to care for her baby. This included feeding and changing his diapers. I didn't want to because I wasn't hired to be a babysitter. However, I was given the "guilt trip" because she had nobody else to watch him while she was "occupied". This became a daily occurrence. Needless to say, it prevented me from doing my work.

In all honesty, I think a mother should not be allowed to bring her child to work. I'm not against children, I'm just against the distraction and the inability to finish my work because of a crying baby. If more and more mothers will be allowed to bring their baby to work, then we should allowed the opportunity to work from home, away from all these distractions.