This past May, Chontae Sylvertooth, Interim Associate Director of Benefits and Wellness of Eastern Michigan University, distributed a document to the Building Administrator’s during their meeting. According to an online interview done with Brandi Below, a Wellness Center Intern, “the purpose of this document was to inform the EMU building administrators of the history and legal rational behind the request for an increase in lactation spaces on campus.”
The document states that the Nursing Mother’s Lactation Policy was established on February 20, 2012 “to ensure compliance under the Health Care Reform.” Since 2012 there has been eight recognized spaces in the policy as lactation rooms. Today, in 2016, only four of those eight spaces are still available as lactation spaces. They are located in the following areas on campus:
- In the College of Business, which is only for Faculty/Staff use
- In the Convocation Center
- The Student Center
- Halle Library
According to Below, it would be ideal for there to be a lactation room in every building, “…to ensure that all breastfeeding mothers have an accessible lactation room in the building in which they are taking a course/working.”
Any employer that employees more than 50 people have a legal obligation to provide access to lactation rooms according to Section 4207 of the Affordable Care Act passed by President Obama in 2010. Michigan also has several State laws in regards to breastfeeding, “Mich. Comp. Laws § 41.181, § 67.1aa and § 117.4i et seq. (1994) state that public nudity laws do not apply to a woman breastfeeding a child.”
At times the media has been questioned why nursing mother’s insist on having a private lactation room that is separate from a bathroom. Below says that, “Per the conditions set out in the Affordable Care Act, women should not be expected to express milk in restrooms.”
According to the document given out to the Building Administration, there are minimal guidelines to what the spaces must provide to nursing mothers that must be honored, which are as followed:
- A clean space, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public.
- Either signs that designate when the space is in use, or a lock on the door.
- A place for the nursing mother to sit.
- A flat surface, other than the floor, on which to place the pump.
However, the lactation rooms that the Wellness Center are hoping to see would also include:
- Access to electricity, so that a nursing mother can plug in an electric pump rather than use a pump with battery power.
- Sinks within or nearby the room for washing hands and cleaning pump attachments.
- Refrigerators within or nearby the room for storing expressed milk.
- Good lighting.
- Comfortable temperature.
- Proper Ventilation.
The Wellness Center continues to encourage building administrators to express their thoughts about the request prior to the next Building Administrator’s Meeting. The goal is for each building administrator to find a spaces available that are committed from high traffic buildings and different locations in the south west, north west, north east and middle of campus.
For any questions in regards to lactation room policy or for more information, contact Chonate Sylvertooth at csylverto@emich.edu, Cathy Bohlen at cbohlen@emich.edu, or Rebecca Frank at rfrank7@emich.edu.
