More from the Annals of Breastfeeding

I find this fascinating.

An important bit of info to this story is that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be exclusively breastfed for 6 months and then continue for at least a year.

A friend of mine is a pediatrician. She has a baby and just went back to work and needs to pump milk for her daughter When you pump you need to do it every 4 hours that you are away from your child. So let's say you work an 8 hour work day, that is 2 pumping times. Though your pump will remove all the milk in 12 minutes or so, there is set up time, cleanup time, storage time, so really you need to allow 1/2 an hour so you can do it all and not spill what you just made.

Her employer told her she could pump during her lunch break - probably many women do this. You get a hands free bra so you can eat your lunch while hooked up to the milker. Not the nicest way to spend your lunch break but so be it. For 8 and a half months you can spend your lunch break locked away in a room pumping milk.

However, they wouldn't allow her to take more time to pump. When she pushed they said they would give her more time, but dock her pay...she pushed more and they gave her 15 minutes and no pay dock and told her not to ask for more.

What does it say about the world that the very people who espouse breastfeeding to their patients don't make it easy for their employees to breastfeed their babies??? And, this is in the state of MA, where breastfeeding in public is protected by law.

I just don't get it.