by Amy Spangler
January 04, 2010

Imagine this: In addition to a private space for expressing your milk, your employer also provides a portable breast pump complete with carrying case, flexible break times to make milk expression easier, and access to a lactation consultant before and after your baby is born. Inconceivable? Not if you’re a CIGNA mom.

CIGNA along with Corning, Inc., CVS Caremark, Occidental Oil and Gas Corporation, and Texas instruments Incorporated are featured in an issue brief by the Center for Prevention and Health Services and the National Business Group on Health titled Workplace Breastfeeding Programs: Employer Case Studies. The intent of the brief is to give employers interested in establishing workplace breastfeeding programs specific examples of successful programs that they can easily adapt.

Lack of workplace breastfeeding support is among the reasons cited for why the U.S. has failed to achieve the Healthy People (HP) 2010 breastfeeding goals. While 74 percent of mothers initiate breastfeeding, only 13 percent breastfeed exclusively for six months.

Even though studies show that breastfeeding decreases employee absenteeism, increases employee retention, and promotes an earlier return to work, employers have been hesitant to offer workplace breastfeeding programs. Their reluctance prompted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration in 2008 to develop The Business Case for Breastfeeding.

Businesses that fail to make workplaces breastfeeding friendly need to stop making excuses and start implementing changes. It can be done. It has been done. So do it.