Breastfeeding in public is a contended issue across college campuses, but the U is making efforts to end the controversy.
Lactation stations have been set up across campus, at the library, the Student Services building and the Women’s Resource Center in the Union.
Shauna Lower, the director of the Child Care Coordinating Office at the U, said she believes lactation stations are important for breastfeeding to become more “normalized.”
“The U has many different departments that already have the stations set up for women to use,” Lower said. “I feel that they are part of the awareness to help people understand that breastfeeding and expressing milk is natural.”
Lactation stations are controversial because of the question of whether or not breastfeeding in public is appropriate.
“Nationally across college campuses, and in public places in general, nursing mothers are being told to cover up or go somewhere else, which is typically a public bathroom,” Lower said.
Lower said she wants mothers to feel comfortable when they have to feed their children or express milk.
“I want mothers to have a private, calm place,” Lower said. “The middle of the Union is not that place.”
The lactation stations are free to use if the mother is a student or faculty of the U, and some students think that if another person does have an issue with a mother wanting to breastfeed their children, they should think about it from a different point of view.
Lisa Nehering, a freshman in art history, said she thinks the stations are a good resource for mothers.
“The mother is bettering her life and the baby’s by going to school,” Nehering said. “It doesn’t affect other students or staff who aren’t using them, so they shouldn’t care. They should just be respectful to the mothers.”
Other students, such as Erin Boerner, a second year graduate student in audiology, support the decision to implement more stations.
“Personally, I don’t want to have kids while I am in school, but everyone has made different choices,” Boerner said. “Education and family are both important, and there needs to be a balance. A station is a good idea because it combines the two for those who need that option.”
Lower said she thinks students should support student mothers.
“Just because a woman is a mother doesn’t mean that she doesn’t want to be in school,” Lower said. “The U wants to encourage women to stay in school and graduate with a degree — it only makes sense for other students and for the faculty to support the mothers who are also students.”
Lower said the Child Care program hopes to start more lactation stations around campus over the next few years.
“Having a lactation area,” she said, “is the component that mothers need to be successful in school.”
@JulianneSkrivan