Breast-feeding becoming a water-cooler topic in some offices

NEW YORK -- A decade ago, most business executives -- both male and female -- thought new mothers who chose to continue breast-feeding once they returned to work were doing "a nice thing" -- as long as they didn't talk about it at the office, says Carol Ann Friedman, an international board-certified lactation consultant.

Times have changed.

Friedman now runs Mothers at Work breast-feeding programs at 24 large U.S. corporations, including Toyota Motor Sales Corp. and Prudential Financial, and she says the high-tech world has been particularly receptive to corporate lactation programs.

"In '91, when I started in this business, people said, 'It is a nice thing to do,' but companies couldn't even address it because it had the word breast in it," she says.

"But because of the younger work force population, there have been a lot of changes. Companies want their young talent to come back to work after having a child, and also the dads I'm talking to are more involved at home so they know about breast-feeding."

When a mother returns to work, she's already worried about how she's going to handle the demands of her job besides the demands of her new baby. The goal of Mothers at Work, a division of LifeCare Inc., is to eliminate the common concerns of how mothers will find the time to express breast milk during the work day and how her peers will react, Friedman explains.

Knowing that their company supports them makes it easier for women to get up from their desks carrying their pump, she says.

It helps, too, that in the past 10 years, pumps have gone from 19-pound machines to lightweight self-contained kits that resemble laptop computers.

Corporate lactation programs also make financial sense, says Friedman, who is a registered nurse.

Workers, including men, consider such a program -- which usually includes an onsite lactation room with a chair, table and electrical outlet, discounts on pumping equipment, and support and education materials -- to be a benefit, just like flexible work hours and maternity or paternity leave.

Children who are breast-fed have lower medical claim costs, too, according to Friedman.

Toyota introduced a lactation program in 1999 for its almost 6,000 employees because "it was the right thing to do," says Sharon Ota, the company's work-life manager.

"The topic had arisen over the years: Mothers were struggling to return to the workplace because the workplace was not physically conducive to breast-feeding," she explains.

It also has become easier to talk openly about breast-feeding as news coverage increases and medical groups issue endorsements, Ota notes.