Twenty Nine Percent of Moms Concerned that Pumping at Work Can Impact their Career Growth
According to Acelleron’s latest Human Resources Report, 43 percent of breastfeeding moms surveyed feel they are less able to complete their work tasks due to their at-work pumping conditions, and 29 percent are concerned that pumping at work can impact their career growth.
Breastfeeding is one of the biggest challenges when returning to work from parental leave, and despite this, 90 percent of breastfeeding moms are pumping at work, or planning to pump at work when they return.
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Breastfeeding has tremendous health benefits for both mom and baby and is strongly encouraged by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics. For employers, this is great news as breastfeeding in the workplace results in significant health care savings and higher retention rates.
“With the increasing trend of moms wanting to feed their babies human milk, companies need to better support breastfeeding employees returning to work,” Jason Canzano, managing director of Acelleron, said. “When looking at some of the key statistics in our report, only 49 percent of our moms’ employers have a lactation/mother’s room to pump in and 78 percent of these moms stated their employer has greater than 50 employees, meaning these companies are not meeting the federal requirements for protecting breastfeeding women in the workplace.”
With at-work pumping conditions being sub-par, 24 percent of the moms surveyed have considered a job/ Career Growth change due to their need to pump at work. Despite the improving nursing laws and employer benefits, much more can be done to support breastfeeding mothers returning to work.
The data collected from the Return to Work survey is used to help Acelleron achieve its mission to increase breastfeeding rates, especially when moms return to work. This mission is carried out in various ways, including providing a fully covered breast pump through the mother’s health insurance plan, as well as making pumping at work easy through their Pump@Work employer benefit program. Pump@Work is the first lactation room subscription service that removes the hassle of lugging breastfeeding equipment, supplies, and milk-boosting snacks back and forth to work for pumping employees.