After the gym, the micro-nap area, or the cafeteria, it seems that breastfeeding rooms are becoming more and more popular these days in the workplace.
We’ve seen many companies take the plunge in recent weeks.
We give you the 6 best reasons to integrate a breastfeeding room in your company.
- Today, 1 out of 3 women express their milk in the workplace secretly in the toilets (*1); For the remaining 2 thirds, they do it in their car or in a cupboard.
Besides the nauseating odors, who among us would go eat or prepare a meal in the toilet? In this day and age, going to the gym, doing yoga, or playing foosball in the workplace is very much accepted, why should pumping milk be any different ? - Because every company should adapt its work environment to cultural and societal evolutions: today, there are twice as many women who breastfeed than in the 1970s (*2). There are also almost twice as many of them working as in the 1970s. + More women, and more breastfeeding … what are we waiting for to change the work environment?
- Because offering an ergonomic breastfeeding space means helping mothers to return to work: the biggest cause of extended maternity leave is the desire to continue breastfeeding for a few more months, and the lack of support from the employer.
- Because the OMS recommends a breastfeeding period of 6 months, and maternity leave is less than 3 months…
Returning to work is the first reason to stop breastfeeding. (*3) - Because it’s an obligation: go out article of law ‘article R. 4152-13 of the labor code.
- Women have the right to 1 hour per day for 1 year after giving birth. In addition, companies with more than 100 employees are obliged to provide a breastfeeding area. Because women deserve it, because the return to work is very difficult for many of them, and because it goes without saying that they should be supported during this sometimes exhausting period. The space must be comfortable, reassuring, and caring. The Pachamama breastfeeding solution has been designed to encourage milk flow.
You’re convinced but you lack ideas on how to design your breastfeeding space? We tell you more in this article: “How to design my breastfeeding space”.
(*1) British Slater and Gordon point out the poor conditions in which breastfeeding mothers live.
(*2) https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2020-08/er958.pdf
(*3) https://www.cairn.info/revue-nouvelles-questions-feministes-2021-1-page-8.htm