Working with baby
A picture of Bryer Knowles, who is now a year old, is taped to the computer monitor at his mother Marci Knowles' work.<br>Aimee Hornberger/Columbia Basin Herald
No longer an impossible feat, new moms return to work force with pumps, private rooms and employer support
MOSES LAKE — Before Amber Woodward's 11-month-old son Isaiah began eating solid foods, breastfeeding was an essential part of her everyday routine while working as a dental assistant in Moses Lake.
Working in an office environment, where clients are constantly coming in and out, Woodward was concerned about whether she would be able to both work and breastfeed Isaiah, something that she had always wanted to do.
"I told myself that if I couldn't breastfeed at work, I would stop working," said Woodward, who still takes a breast pump to work so she can continue breastfeeding.
With the support of her family and employer, Woodward said the transition back to work was not as difficult as she anticipated.
"If you have a mother that's allowed to breastfeed, it makes it easier to go back to work," Woodward said, adding that she believes support for breastfeeding moms will increase as communities realize that work doesn't take a priority over the health of their children. "I think breastfeeding says I put my family first."
Another mom, Marci Knowles, who returned to work at Moses Lake Clinic eight weeks after having her second son Bryer last year, agrees that having employer support makes all the difference for new moms who are transitioning back to work.
"It was nice to know that even if I wasn't with my son, he was getting the benefits of breast milk," Knowles said of going back to work, where she was provided with a flexible schedule and private room to pump breast milk, a privilege that many work places don't offer.
"The problem is getting employers, the Legislature to know the importance of breastfeeding," said Julie Harper, an attorney at Harper Law Firm, PLLC, in Moses Lake during a Breastfeeding Coalition meeting in February. "You have the right to breastfeed anywhere."
Harper said that with large numbers of moms returning to the work place every year, it is not an issue to be ignored. "When you have that many moms coming back to the work force, you're going to have to address it at one point," Harper said, adding that in 2001 a statute was passed in Washington state by which employers can be certified as "infant friendly."
To receive that certification, employers would be required to implement a breastfeeding policy that includes flexible work hours, a sanitary and clean place for mothers to breastfeed other than a restroom, access to clean water to wash breast pump equipment and a refrigerator for moms to keep breast milk at work.
Harper said currently there are 13 states, including Washington, that are exempt from indecency laws, meaning that breastfeeding is not considered to be an act of indecent exposure.
In 2004, a proclamation was made in the city of Moses Lake, stating support for breastfeeding and the health benefits it can provide both moms and their babies.
The benefits of breastfeeding are not just social, emotional or physical, said Debe Nuss, coordinator for the Moses Lake Breastfeeding Coalition.
"They're not missing work as often and are not as sick as much and their child's healthier," Nuss said. "Those employees seem to be the ones that are motivated to stay in that company."