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Joyce Morse
Joyce Morse has written 26 articles for SB Informer.
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The Business of Nursing on the Job

Joyce Morse

August 12, 2014


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Small businesses must deal with the impact of female employees having babies.

From maternity leave to sick children, business owners and managers must have a plan on how to support the employee while managing the company through these issues.

One such issue is the decision on how to handle nursing on the job for employees.

 

Required by Law

Businesses with at least 50 employees must allow women to pump or nurse during work hours as long as their babies are under 12 months of age. If your employee lives near the workplace or if you have an on-site daycare, she may want to take breaks to feed her baby.

You may be required by law to allow these breaks, but even if you fall under the minimal number of employees, you should consider making allowances for this time to improve employee morale and retain your best employees.

How Businesses Can Help

The goal of every small business should be to make this time as easy and manageable for the company and employee as possible.

Here are a few tips to help make nursing on the job just another fact of life:

• Take the lead and initiate the conversation about breastfeeding at work. Your employee is probably embarrassed about broaching the topic. By you being the one to bring up the topic, you put her at ease. Ideally, this should be done before she takes maternity leave.

• Find an appropriate spot for her to pump or breastfeed if it is done on-site. This includes a private room that is not a restroom. If she has her own office, the solution is easy. Otherwise, a conference room or empty office is ideal.

• Ask her what she needs. If she has a nursing bra like the Maternity Underwire Nursing Bra, style 4051 available at major retailers such as Walmart, she may continue working while she pumps. If she is taking breaks to leave work and feed her baby, make plans to cover any required duties in her absence.

Dealing with the Challenges

For companies whose employees work in offices or even cubicles, the answers are much easier than those employees that work directly with the public or have no designated office space.

To make things easier for the nursing mother, creative solutions must be found.

For example, if an employee is a bus driver or janitor, how and where will she take time to pump or nurse?

To make things better and less stressful for everyone involved, it is important that these issues be handled before the employee has her baby. This gives you more time to come up with an acceptable solution and provides reassurance for the employee when she returns to work.

It is essential that small businesses be supportive of nursing mothers.

It is required by the law in many cases, but that is not the only reason. Companies that provide adequate support for employees who are mothers will have happier staff and reduce turnover.

This leads to reduced HR costs and improved efficiency for the business.

In the end, everybody wins.


                   



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