Develop Your Lactation Policy

Providing the health and/or legal rationales for the policy provides additional legitimacy and stronger grounds for buy-in from supervisors and co-workers.

An employee's choice to provide breast milk to her child is very much influenced by the amount of support she receives from supervisors and coworkers. It is very important that employees feel supported to attend to their physical needs for breast milk expression without danger of repercussion, intimidation, or hostility by their supervisors or coworkers.

The policy should be clearly communicated during new employee orientation, during an employee’s request for parental or maternity leave, and should also be restated through relevant communication channels on an ongoing basis. Human Resources materials should include breastfeeding policy information in packets for employees taking family/parental leave for the birth of a child so they can make the necessary arrangements and feel confident and supported in their decision to provide breast milk to their baby.

It is important to take into consideration the diversity of needs and job roles and functions in your organization. Your policy should be broad enough to address all employee roles and work environments. It is important that the policy communicates the responsibility of managers and supervisors to arrange work coverage for the employee while they are on break to express breast milk. It should not be the responsibility of the employee to arrange this coverage.

Education and support are key to supporting the goal of maintaining breast milk supply attainable for employees. While not a required component for Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite (TMFW) designation, a strong employee lactation support policy addresses lactation education and support resources that are available to employees. 

Your policy should make sure “access by each employee who has a need for a clean, private, non-bathroom space appropriate for expressing breast milk” is available, but the type of space will depend on your worksite. Procedures or guidelines referenced in your policy can detail the range of options your organization has available for providing this space in each setting.

Yes. The program requires participating businesses to have policies that provide breastfeeding employees access to a private area, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public. When planning your worksite lactation space, make an effort to minimize travel time, and consider flexible scheduling arrangements.

However, a permanent, dedicated lactation room is not required to be eligible for Basic designation as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite.

TMFW program staff can help work with you to discuss creative space solutions to meet the program requirements during a technical assistance call. Find additional examples of creative space solutions HERE.

This refers to break periods where a lactating employee is relieved from their work duties to breastfeed or express breast milk during the work day. Most lactating employees pump breast milk during standard break and meal periods. Federal law and Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite program requirements do not require you to pay your employees for breaks needed to express breast milk. However, if paid breaks during the work day are provided by your organization, lactating employees may use these paid breaks to express breast milk. Learn more about why lactation breaks are necessary on our Policies Matter page.

This means providing flexible work arrangements that allow reasonable break time for an employee to breastfeed or express breast milk, each time they have the need, for one year or longer after the child's birth. There is no requirement to provide paid break time over and above the usually provided breaks for the purpose of milk expression.

If you do not provide paid time for milk-expression breaks, you may instead provide “flexible scheduling” to accommodate the employee's lactation breaks without negatively affecting their take-home pay, leave balances, or other benefits. Flexible scheduling includes permitting an employee to:

• Creatively combine existing breaks (e.g., combining rest breaks, splitting meal breaks, etc.) or
• Adapting their work schedules (e.g., coming in early or leaving late) to make up the time used for milk-expression breaks.

In addition to flexible scheduling for breaks, some employers provide employees the choice to continue working while expressing breast milk. This could be done by allowing lactating employees to bring their laptop into the lactation space, or by allowing employees to use discreet, wearable breast pumps. This is in place of being relieved from duties while taking a break. Keep in mind, federal law states that lactating employees must be completely relieved from duty during their lactation breaks, or they must be paid for this time.

No. If a sink is not located in the lactation space, make sure there is a sink accessible within a short walking distance of the lactation space, such as in a nearby break area, restroom, or other area. Efforts to minimize travel time for all employees covered under this policy should be made when planning the lactation space, and travel time should be considered when developing flexible scheduling arrangements.

Worksites without plumbing, such as on a construction site or other field setting, may meet this requirement by making a "camp" sink and a clean, potable water source available. The employer may also consider providing hand sanitizer and breast-pump accessory wipes to further support hygienic conditions.

If a worksite does not have access to electricity, the employer may need to provide an external battery pack or generator to power the employee’s personal use double-electric breast pump.

The policy must provide access to a safe, clean place for employees to store breast milk during the workday.

Hygienic storage of breast milk is like conditions needed for hygienic storage of other foods. Hygienic storage can include:

• a refrigerator dedicated to storing breast milk;
• a shared refrigerator space near the employee's work area; or
• an insulated cooler with ice pack (either the employee's own cooler or one provided by the employer for the employee's use).

To help keep breast milk free from contamination, it is suggested that employees place the milk storage container into a separate, clean container (e.g., a paper or plastic sack) before storing it in a shared area, such as a break-room refrigerator.

Did you know?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classifies breast milk as a food, not a body fluid. For the purposes of occupational exposure, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) does not include breast milk as a potentially infectious material. Therefore, universal - and not special - precautions are sufficient for occupational safety purposes.