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So what's it like for low-wage women who need to pump breastmilk at work? We obtained nearly 400 federal investigations involving the "nursing mothers" law. The findings in these cases are sad and disturbing. I'm going to walk through them here. 1/X huffpost.com/entry/how-empl…
Federal law - if it covers you - guarantees reasonable time and a clean space to pump at work, thanks to Obamacare. We found employers all over the country had violated that law -- including household names like Walmart, Lowes, McDonald's, IHOP and the US Postal Service. 2/X
There's a lot of pressure on women to breastfeed for as long as they can. The reality is many bosses make it impossible. In so many cases, women said they gave up on breastfeeding because they couldn't get breaks or had to pump somewhere filthy. 3/X
Some of the most common violations were in restaurants and retail. Not a surprise -- the law tends to cover hourly workers, and it can be really hard to get breaks in those fields. At one IHOP, a server said she only got two breaks to pump over the course of 20 days. 4/X
In one heartbreaking story, a Walmart worker who couldn't pump at work gave up on breastfeeding. She couldn't afford formula, so her colleagues pooled money when they saw her crying. It took the store two months to get in line with the law -- way too late for her. 5/X
We found five cases where women said their inability to pump led to painful breast infections. That includes one worker whose boss stood outside the nursing room and *timed her while she pumped* 6/X
In one case at the U.S. Postal Service, a woman who couldn't get breaks had to pump into the toilet to relieve the pressure in her breasts because it hurt so bad. Sometimes she pumped on the locker room floor. She got a 7-day suspension. 7/X
There were 22 cases where women were retaliated against for pumping at work, including having their pay docked and even getting fired. A lot of women only reported their employers after they had left their jobs, because they were afraid. 8/X
And guess what? Some of the most common violators of the law are hospitals, including "baby friendly" ones. How can that be? Nurses have a very hard time getting breaks, cuz the patient always comes first. My colleague @ksophiewill digs into that here: huffpost.com/entry/breastfe…
