How to Be an Advocate for Breastfeeding
B Corp Mamava Seeks Healthier Society Through Infrastructure and Support for Breastfeeding Parents
By Sascha Mayer, Mamava Co-Founder
We invented our freestanding lactation suite to solve a problem no one was talking about: What happens when breastfeeding parents return to work. When breastfeeding parents are away from their babies, they need a private space to express milk to maintain their milk supply. Yet far too many workplaces still lack lactation spaces, leaving breastfeeding parents to pump in toilet stalls, supply closets, or makeshift spaces that offer little privacy and even less dignity. For some, the lack of support has meant ending their breastfeeding journeys earlier than they planned or leaving the workforce altogether.
Supporting breastfeeding may sound simple because who doesn’t love babies — at least in theory. But I know from personal experience, and from talking with thousands of new parents over the years, that supporting breastfeeding in practice is a whole different game altogether.
Of course, not all parents can or want to breastfeed, but for those who do — and 83% of babies start out receiving breast milk — it’s incumbent upon employers to ensure their physical environments are set up to support lactation. So in 2013 my co-founder, Christine Dodson, and I placed the first Mamava lactation pod in the Burlington International Airport in Vermont. The goal was to test and pollinate the idea of an easy-to-install lactation space so that breastfeeding parents would have easy access to private spaces to express milk wherever they went — and breastfeeding people go everywhere!
Today, we’re a thriving women-founded manufacturing business with a mission to create a healthier society through infrastructure and support for breastfeeding. We’ve placed thousands of Mamava pods in airports, museums, hospitals, schools, and private businesses across the country. Our free app helps breastfeeding parents find and unlock our pods and locate thousands of other public lactation spaces.
We fully embrace the Certified B Corporation philosophy that businesses can be a force for good and believe that B Corps are better businesses for everyone — employees, customers, and the environment. As a proud B Corp since 2016, we’re also working to make all businesses better for breastfeeding by ensuring that they provide the spaces breastfeeding parents need.
Supporting breastfeeding has health benefits for both babies and mothers, but it also has benefits for the workplace, public health, and our national economy. For employers, better infant health means fewer health insurance claims, less time off to care for sick children, and higher productivity. Overall, if 90% of U.S. mothers were able to meet the recommendation to breastfeed exclusively for six months, there would be a savings of $13 billion per year!
When it comes to changing culture, there are a lot of levers at our disposal both as business leaders and individuals: voting for progressive public policies and legislation; taking collective action to improve working conditions; and advancing individual advocacy efforts to help normalize breastfeeding in this country. Here’s how you can become a lactivist:
Promote the passage of legislation that supports working parents.
We need a federal paid family leave policy so that all parents have the necessary time and space they need to heal and bond with their new babies. (Currently only 35% of organizations offer paid maternity leave, so federal action is critical.) We also need legislation to address the current patchwork of workplace lactation accommodation protections that don’t cover almost nine million working women. (The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act would have solved this problem, but it has, to date, stalled in the Senate.) In the absence of progressive public policy, however, there’s still a lot that employers and organizations can do to make businesses better for breastfeeding employees.
Create a breastfeeding-friendly workplace.
Breastfeeding employees need easy access to a private, comfortable space to set up a breast pump and express milk on a predictable schedule. For many employers, providing a workplace lactation space is the law. (As part of the federal FLSA law, “Break Time for Nursing Parents” provides protections for non-exempt (hourly) workers, but many states have far more comprehensive protections.) Beyond legal requirements, however, having a lactation space is the right thing to do to help breastfeeding employees feel both welcomed and supported at work.
Help normalize breastfeeding.
Unfortunately, there’s still a stigma in this country when it comes to breastfeeding. News stories surface every day of mothers being shamed for nursing their babies in a public space, and Facebook groups are filled with stories of parents being told by family members to breastfeed in private. So as long as breastfeeding mothers stay home, our culture supports them. But that support is almost nonexistent for breastfeeding parents who work outside the home — and that’s the majority in this country. It’s time to normalize breastfeeding and celebrate the dedication of parents. So the next time you see a breastfeeding parent out and about, congratulate them and tell them they’re doing a great job. Because they need to hear it!
At Mamava, we’re in the business of making a difference in the daily lives of breastfeeding parents. We come to work ready to make an impact, to help businesses boost their lactation support, and to make sure that the next generation of breastfeeding parents have dignified, private spaces to express milk wherever they go.
B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
