by Anna Hampton
Daily Lobo
Anyone who has breast-fed knows a hungry baby is not shy about where the next meal is coming from.
Fortunately for mothers, the Health Sciences Center is concerned with providing a safe, private place for women to pump their breast milk.
The Health Sciences Center had the grand opening of its Employee Lactation Station on
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Friday.
The room will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to employees of the hospital, students and faculty from the University and any mothers in need of a private, sanitary place to pump breast milk, said Sabrina Hamel-Green, a lactation consultant at the hospital.
"Before, women were having to go to the bathroom to pump,"
she said.
The room is equipped with three breast pumps, chairs, a sink and a microwave for sterilizing pump hookups. It is on the fourth floor of the hospital, outside the Mother and Baby Unit.
"We're really excited about having it," said OB/GYN resident Gabriela Dilauro, who had to stop breast-feeding her child after three months instead of the recommended six. "We promote this for our patients, but we can't do it ourselves."
Rachel Ortiz, a sterile processing technician, is breast-feeding her second child and registered for the program at the
opening.
Women register for the program at the hospital, where they will be given a swipe card that is activated for four months at a time. Registration is free.
"Now that they have this here, I don't have to lug my breast pump around," Ortiz said.
The New Mexico Breast-feeding
Task Force provided a $3,400 grant to furnish the room, and the hospital provided the space, said Emilie Sebesta, an assistant professor in the pediatric department, who has requested a room for two
years.
"I think it's going to attract employees," Sebesta said.
She said supporting breast-feeding would make the University more progressive.
Graduate student Lissa Knudsen said having more support and rooms on campus for breast-feeding women would attract more students.
"The women who need it right now need it," she said. "They might not need it in six months from now. By then, there will be a new group of women who
need it."
Knudsen said she is proposing the designation of five rooms on campus for breast-feeding women to go to privately pump
their milk.
She said the Women's Resource Center is supportive of women who are breast-feeding and will allow the women to use the center's library to pump.
"They are very understanding," she said. "It's not something you can just do in public."
Natasha James, a first-year medical student, said the benefits of breast-feeding are endless.
"It facilitates mother-to-baby bonding," she said.
Other benefits include immunizations to some allergies, infections and gastro-intestinal problems, not to mention the reduction in cost of bottle formula, Dilauro said.
She said the room is conveniently located for hospital workers who are not allowed to leave their floor during work.
"For us, it really has an impact," she said. "We can just take 10 minutes from our day."
The room is available for anyone.
"This gives women a place to go where they don't have to kick their officemates out," she said, adding that more rooms would especially benefit the students and faculty who don't have private offices.
