Receptionist: I was fired after trying to pump breast milk for my baby - at mammogram center

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/05/07/2010-05-07_breast_biz_axed_me_for_milk_pump_suit.html

BY Katie Nelson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, May 7th 2010, 4:00 AM



Braganti for News
Yadiris Rivera says she was fired for pumping milk for daughter Erin.

A Manhattan receptionist says she was canned after trying to pump breast milk for her baby at work - at a mammogram center.

Yadiris Rivera has filed a complaint with the feds and the state against Medical Imaging of Manhattan, where she worked for six years.

She says that when she returned from eight weeks of maternity leave in April 2009, her bosses made her pump in the rest room and pressured her to switch to formula.

"It was the worst feeling every day," said the 28-year-old Newark mom. "They wanted me to choose; at least that's how I felt. Either don't feed my daughter or don't come back to work."

Rivera said her daughter, Erin, was allergic to formula. Regardless, state law says mothers can pump at work for three years after giving birth.

FULL story at link.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Ignorance is rampant..even among the medical profession...

[marybourg]

2. "her bosses made her pump in the rest room"

Where did she want to carry out this somewhat intimate and noisy operation?

[customerserviceguy]

3. My guess would be

somewhere besides where people do their elimination business.

When you were a kid, did your Mom make your lunch in the bathroom?

[marybourg]

4. No. but my mom would not have exposed her breasts at the reception desk. nt.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Somewhere between the receptionist's desk

and the toilet, there is a reasonable middle ground.

[marybourg]

6. Theoretically, maybe. But it *is* a place of business, When I think of the

many places I worked in, I can't think of one that had a private place to retreat to a couple of times a day that would not have required displacing another employee at best. Some places just had no private space, other than the ladies' room, that didn't involve interfering with the operation of the workplace. Many generations of mothers (including my Mom with me) have retreated to the "ladies' room" to nurse in privacy and dignity. Many "ladies' rooms' have outer rooms with chairs and a table, sometimes even a sofa, often a sink, although I don't know if this particular one did. I may, of course, be wrong, but I tend to suspect some exhibitionism in many of these breast-feeding incidents.

[Berry Cool]

7. Just because businesses didn't accommodate nursing mothers in the past

doesn't mean they shouldn't now. It's too bad so many generations of mothers had to feed their kids in the bathroom.

Why do you suspect exhibitionism? Do you just assume that every time a woman complains about not being able to nurse at work or in public, it's because she harbors a secret wish to show off her breasts for sexual arousal purposes? Isn't that a little narrow-minded of you?

Oh, and if you're one of those people who assumes such a thing, why didn't you use the culturally-approved term for doing this? You made no reference to "whipping 'em out." Which is what people like you usually do--accuse women of "whipping 'em out" on purpose in order to arouse men. (Frankly, I never understood that term--how many women's breasts are actually "whippable"?)

[customerserviceguy]

9. Well stated

I guess even successful women have this phobia, I recall Barbara Walters being appalled by a woman on a plane next to her who was feeding an infant. As for me, I would be celebrating the one time that a crying baby would be quiet!

[marybourg]

11. I would have liked to continue this discussion if my imagined

personality defects and thought processes could have been kept out of it.

[customerserviceguy]

8. What about a lunch room, or a lounge?

They're almost always out of view of the public, and if a co-worker has confused breast milk with urine or excrement, then that's their tough crap for being so unenlightened.

I do seem to recall the kinds of women's restrooms you remember, but they're left over from the days when employers were required to provide couches for the women to faint on while they were having their menstrual periods. What those laws actually did was make it expensive to hire women, and a lot of companies avoided the expense by the use of discriminatory hiring practices. Nobody makes restrooms that way in modern design, any that are still around are mere anachronisms.

Exhibitionism? You're comparing feeding an infant with stripper pole dancing? Did I accidentally click the link marked "Free Republic"? This is the kind of thing I'd expect to find from the fussy-wussies over there.

[Omaha Steve]

10. Feeding rooms are covered by HCR

http://www.examiner.com/x-41622-Health-News-Examiner~y2010m4d9-Breast-feeding-room-privacy-is-now-health-care-law

Breast feeding room privacy is now health care law

Breast feeding in public places is sometimes frowned upon in this county. Mothers who nurse in ladies' rooms or in dressing rooms at clothing stores are sometimes put in an awkward position when other's protest.

Another problem is experienced by mothers who must express breast milk in public restrooms where they work.

Page 1239 of the health care bill

At least one of these problems has been addressed on Page 1239 of the new health care bill, recently signed into law by President Obama.

According to CNN.com "It requires employers to provide 'a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.' Only companies with less than 50 employees can claim it's an undue hardship.. . .

"Major medical and health organizations agree that breast milk by itself is sufficient for newborns and infants until they are 6 months old. But a 2009 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while 74 percent of women start breastfeeding, only 33 percent of mothers relied on breastfeeding only at three months. At six months, the numbers go down to 14 percent.

"Twenty-four states also have workplace-related legislation about breastfeeding. Read about the laws here."