Guest Blog: Pumping at Work Is Your Right—Not a Privilege
August is World Breastfeeding Month—a time to celebrate and support one of the most natural, yet often challenged, acts of caregiving: feeding your baby. As a physician and a mother, I know firsthand how important breastfeeding is for both babies and parents. But I also know how difficult it can be to continue breastfeeding after returning to work.
After returning to my pediatric clinic after the birth of my 2nd child, pumping was not protected 21+ years ago. Not even for us, the pediatricians! In addition to not having protected time and space to pump, I had staff knocking on my closed door telling me to hurry up since patients were waiting. Needless to say, I was unable to pump any breastmilk on those days I worked at the office.
Unfortunately, too many mothers are made to feel like asking for time and space to pump breastmilk is asking for a favor. Let me be clear: it is not. It is your legal right.
Under the federal Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act, nearly all workers are entitled to reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space to express milk for one year after their child’s birth. This applies whether you work full-time or part-time, in an office or on your feet. While this law is fairly new—passed in 2022—it built on previous protections and closed some of the loopholes from the Affordable Care Act, significantly expanded who is covered.
What does this mean in real terms? Your employer must provide you:
Breaks to pump: As often as you need to express milk, not just on a fixed schedule.
A private space: That is not a bathroom, shielded from view, and free from intrusion.
Protection from retaliation: You cannot legally be punished, demoted, or harassed for asserting your right to pump at work.
Despite these protections, I still hear from storied from my patients that still don’t feel supported, scared or guilty to take time out of their workday to pump breastmilk for their baby. The truth is, our culture still has a long way to go when it comes to supporting lactating parents—especially working mothers.
As a society, we should be making it easier, not harder, to continue breastfeeding. Breastmilk provides powerful nutrition and immune support to infants. And breastfeeding also supports mom’s physical and mental health—reducing risks of breast and ovarian cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. We need to stop treating lactation as a personal choice with personal consequences and start recognizing it as a public health issue deserving of structural support.
If you're unsure of your rights or facing pushback, you don’t have to go it alone. Organizations such as First Shift Justice Project and Center for WorkLife Law offer information and even legal assistance. It’s also financially better for companies. Studies show that lactation programs in the workplace actually increase retention of employees—which is better for the bottom line.
To every parent returning to work while continuing to provide breastmilk for your baby: you are doing something incredible. You deserve a workplace that respects and protects your effort.
Let’s use this World Breastfeeding Month not only to promote breastfeeding—but to protect the people doing it.
Natasha K. Sriraman, MD MPH FAAP FABM PMH-C
Dr. Natasha K. Sriraman is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. She is the President of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. You can follow her at Natasha.Mom.MD on Instagram, Facebook & LinkedIn.
