By Ashley On October 1, 2011, I sat on the bathroom floor of the LSAT test center pumping milk for my 5 month old son. I felt dirty, embarrassed, stressed, and alone. Things no one should feel as they are in the midst of taking one of the most important exams of their life. An [...]
By Galen Sherwin, Staff Attorney ACLU Women’s Rights Project Women should not be forced to choose between breastfeeding their babies and pursuing a legal education — right? Wrong — at least according to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the organization that administers the LSAT. This summer, our sister organization, MomsRising, contacted us about one [...]
By Galen Sherwin, ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and Rebecca T. Wallace, ACLU of Colorado Imagine you’ve recently come back to work after maternity leave and you’re using every last minute of your break time to pump breast milk to feed your baby at home. You just need a little help from your employer — an [...]
When a pregnant woman comes down with a cold or minor infection, the information about what options are safe for treating her symptoms often are nonexistent. Similarly, if a woman is being treated for a chronic illness, pregnancy can throw her treatment regimen into disarray with uncertainty about the impact of her medicines. Too often, [...]
By Galen Sherwin, Staff Attorney, ACLU Women’s Rights Project Returning to work after having a new baby can pose real barriers for women who are breastfeeding. Consider the following real-life examples: When one employee returned from maternity leave, her employer criticized her for needing to express breast milk (or "pump") as frequently as she did [...]
Hearing the phrase, “The IRS has reversed its decision!” is a great way to start the day – any day. The MomsRising team celebrated this morning as we got word that the Internal Revenue Service had reversed its decision and will now let women pay for breast pumps with pre-tax money from health savings accounts. [...]
Recently I was testing recipes for the galactagogues chapter of Parents Need to Eat Too. I see you scratching your head—either you were never a nursing mom with supply problems, or you’ve blissfully erased that episode from your memory. A galactagogue is something that stimulates or promotes the production of breastmilk—if you’re unlucky enough (as [...]
Under health care reform, all employers are required by law to accommodate the needs of breastfeeding employees. But ignorance about breastfeeding still prevails in the workplace. Here are the basics that every employer should know. Please send it to your boss, your HR director, and anyone who is in a position to support women breastfeeding when they return to work.
Last week the New York Times reported that the Food and Drug Administration is now willing to look into the health hazards of Bisphenol-A (BPA). Given that BPA is present in the lining of infant formula cans, the article tells us the FDA recommends that nursing mothers continue breastfeeding for twelve months. But there’s a catch. [...]
Breastfeeding rights is a big topic with MomsRising members. In fact, as we were developing this blog to update our members and allies on the current status of breastfeeding legislation, the issue again came to the attention of the MomsRising team when several MomsRising members expressed concern that showing a photo which included babies with [...]
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