The Business Case for Breastfeeding is a comprehensive program designed to educate employers about the value of supporting breastfeeding employees in the workplace.

About The Business Case For Breastfeeding

The Business Case for Breastfeeding is a comprehensive program designed to educate employers about the value of supporting breastfeeding employees in the workplace. The program highlights how such support contributes to the success of the entire business.

The Business Case for Breastfeeding offers tools to help employers provide worksite lactation support and privacy for breastfeeding mothers to express milk. The program also offers guidance to employees on breastfeeding and working. Resources to help lactation specialists and health professionals to educate employers in their communities are also available.

For Business Managers

Companies successful at retaining valued employees after childbirth find that two components can make the difference: providing dedicated space (as small as 4′ x 5′) for breastfeeding employees to express milk in privacy, and providing worksite lactation support.

• The payoff is significant: more satisfied, loyal employees and cost savings to the business. These savings are seen in such areas as:
• Retention of experienced employees;
• Reduction in sick time taken by both moms and dads for children’s illnesses; and
• Lower health care and insurance costs.

This booklet provides business executives and managers, as well as human resource managers, with the business case for breastfeeding…how supporting breastfeeding employees
contributes to their company’s return on investment (ROI).

Easy Steps To Supporting Breastfeeding Employees

Return on investment (ROI) is the bottom line in assessing the value of new programs. Research shows that providing a lactation support program is not only highly desired by breastfeeding employees who return to work after childbirth, it can also improve your company’s ROI by saving money in health care and employee expenses.

This booklet, Easy Steps to Supporting Breastfeeding Employees, provides you, the human resource manager, and other members of your wellness team with an integrated approach to implementing a cost-effective lactation support program. This turnkey method is ready to operate with straightforward planning options and proven strategies.

Tool Kit: Resources For Building A Lactation Support Program

This lactation support kit provides template tools that can be personalized to fit the unique needs of your company. Use them along with your Easy Steps to Supporting Breastfeeding Employees booklet to implement your lactation support program.

Employees’ Guide To Breastfeeding And Working

Congratulations for making the healthy choice to breastfeed your baby! Mothers everywhere have found that they can continue to give their babies important health benefits even after they return to work. This booklet will help you take those first steps back to your working life.

This gives you more time to adjust and helps your body make a good supply of milk. Talk with your supervisor about options that have worked for different women:

• Start back to work part-time for a brief period before working full-time.
• Work from home or combine working at home and at work.
• Go back to work on a Thursday or Friday or just before 1-2 days off, depending on your work week. This gives you and your baby a shorter period to adjust to being away from each other before you go back full-time.
• Take Wednesdays off for a few weeks for a mid-week break, and breastfeed on your baby’s schedule to rebuild your milk supply.
• Work a split shift, with a long break in the middle of the day to go home and be with your baby. This can work well for restaurant workers.
• Consider using childcare close to work so you can visit and breastfeed your baby, if feasible, based on
  your work schedule.
• When you arrive to pick up your baby from childcare, take time to breastfeed first. This will give you both time to reconnect before traveling home and returning to other family responsibilities.

Get a Quality Breast Pump

A good quality electric breast pump may be your best strategy for efficiently removing milk during the workday. Contact your local hospital, WIC, or Public Health Department to find where to buy or rent a good pump. Electric pumps that allow you to express milk from both breasts at the same time reduce pumping time!

Outreach Marketing Guide

The Outreach Marketing Guide serves as a companion to the employer kit, The Business Case for Breastfeeding: For Business Managers, It is designed for lactation and health professionals to assist in conducting effective outreach with employers in your community.