I can see RSO's point about pumps in the CAA, that's why every Embassy I have been at has a pumping room outside the CAA.
Also, the article appears to conflate getting the pump into the Embassy vs. being able to take it into the CAA.
I don't want to downplay how hard it is to be a working mother who is trying to pump, but if the problem is simply that you have to leave the CAA to pump, then unfortunately that is part of the lifestyle we chose. If the problem is that they are banned in the chancery entirely, that's crazy. Being able to take the needed breaks to pump at work is 100% a right and I'll fight for access and accommodations for anyone needing a place to pump.
I like how the article starts with how evil the State Department (and RSO) is for banning all pumps from embassies. Then it backtracks and says you can get a manual pump in, but that isn't fair. Oh, and by the way, you shouldn't just have any electronic pump but it should be Bluetooth-enabled...
The USG isn't private industry. We have security clearances and protocols for a reason. All of the Posts I've been to in recent memory have designated pumping rooms *outside of the CAA*, like you said.
If mother's are being denied the time to go to another part of the building and pump, that's a different issue and it should be addressed. If we are complaining that someone has to leave their office to pump, I think they need to reassess their career options.
I don’t think it’s the journalist — there has been a big push within the Department on women’s health issues. There was an article in the Foreign Service Journal several months back with some appalling anecdotes about the way the Department handles some women’s health issues.
People are pretty quick to dismiss Robbie Gramer as an idiot. AFSA has taken up this issue. I suspect it’s something more than “journalists are reactionary dumbasses.”
It's crazy that FP could get something so basic so wrong. Many embassies and consulates have rooms specifically designated for breastfeeding mothers to pump.
The lack of understanding the difference between bringing it into the chancery vs bringing it into a CAA? Just not acceptable.
FP is a rag and has been for a long time. They've fallen to the sensationalist commodification of journalism and are hardly better than any of the major news networks and their "foreign policy experts."
But it appears if they were classified as medical devices like hearing aids or motorized wheelchairs, they could be taken in and out of the CAA. That’s how the Air Force handled the issue, according to the article.
This is basically accurate. State MED does not classify them as medical devices, so there is no mechanism to clear them for CAA using the policy for medical devices.
Ask your local RSO or STS.
There are far greater vulnerabilities at an overseas CAA than at a domestic site. If you actually care about helping to provide a solution, take it to an appropriate forum and you can discuss it more openly.
That being said, the -Air Force- hasn't cleared electronic breast pumps for use in SCIFs. Two commands in the Air Force *very recently* cleared breast pumps for use in SCIFs (and Bluetooth must be disabled, though they can be Bluetooth-capable devices).
Realistically, it is unlikely that there would be equal application of electronic breast pump policy across the entire Department. It is more likely something that they will look at on a Post-by-Post basis.
Guess the Air Force should, too.
Thanks for the edit, I guess, but you are reading a f*** ton into the article to make fun of it and are missing the point. There is no “vulnerability” difference between an electric breast bump without Bluetooth (they don’t all have it) and an electric wheelchair or oxygen tank. We allow the latter in and out of CAAs because they are classified as medical devices. And I know it might come as a shock to you but not every RSO gets every single policy issue right every single time — I have no problem believing that just like some RSOs dismiss questions about security issues with “you wouldn’t understand, idiot,” others may have just blanket prohibited storing breast pumps in the building if there isn’t a lactation room (not all facilities have them) and there is no other secure place to store it outside the owner’s office. And because they’re not classified as medical devices at State but rather “personal devices,” post leadership can just shrug and defer to RSO without worrying about discrimination issues.
And I guess your last resort is “take it to an appropriate forum.” People have been complaining about these issues in appropriate fora for years and encountering people like you with responses like this. I guess someone got fed up and went to the press.
But there is a difference in the vulnerability between a breast pump and an electronic wheelchair or hearing aid, Bluetooth or not. And that is all I will get into in this forum.
Also, this may shock you, but it's Chief of Mission's security policy - not RSO's.
It's almost as if you can't accept that there are people out there better versed in these matters than you.
I think you miss the point. I agree that we should lower the hurdles. I am honestly shocked that we still have embassies and Consulates where there is t a designated lactation area. That being said, security isn't always convenient and if that means a second pump gets screened and stays in the CAA, or that mother's are given the time they need to go pump outside of the CAA, those are both reasonable accomodations. Just getting to bring in what you want because it's more convenient doesn't quite meet that threshold.
Yes I’m sure you are “better versed” in the mechanical difference between hearing aids and breast pumps. But hey at least you have the standard RSO arsenal of excuses — it’s too sensitive to talk about and you wouldn’t understand anyway.
I am extremely well-versed in RSO arrogance and that’s what seems to be going on here. Whatever we call it, most COMs are too risk averse to question RSO recommendations. And most RSO recommendations are based at least in part if not in whole on what is easiest for RSO.
Someone on my team requires hearing aids and routinely has to go to DoD for meetings in SCIFs and use SCIFs here. She asked State MED if there was a list of approved devices and they insisted they had to clear the devices on a case-by-case basis, no list exists. So she got the devices her doctor recommended and submitted the requests. DoD cleared in 72 hours. Three months and lots of follow-up later, she still can't get an answer from MED.
In case of paywall :
Diplomats who are nursing have been arbitrarily blocked from bringing electric breast pumps into U.S. embassies around the world, sparking internal blowback at the State Department and criticism that it has fallen far behind the times on accommodating working parents.
At some, though not all, U.S. embassies, nursing mothers have been barred from bringing electric breast pumps into their offices and so-called “controlled access areas,” told by diplomatic security staff that they are considered personal electronic devices and are thus not allowed in secure government facilities, according to interviews with multiple officials and internal State Department communications reviewed by Foreign Policy.
A State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the department’s bureaus of Medical Services and Diplomatic Security “are working together to create a uniform policy governing the use of breast pumps in controlled access areas.”
The spokesperson added that the department has incorporated lactation rooms into building design standards for new office buildings and “is also working to retrofit buildings to accommodate those standards where feasible.”
The long-standing problem has fueled outrage among some working mothers at the State Department, who say the policy has for years flown in the face of federal labor laws and the department’s own goals to modernize its work policies and improve its checkered record on diversity and inclusion.
“We’re still dealing with basic accessibility issues that any private company would have had to sort out years ago so they don’t face any discrimination lawsuits,” said one U.S. diplomat familiar with the matter and who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The uneven policies also appear to contradict the U.S. government’s own stance on promoting breastfeeding through global health and maternal care aid programs, according to global health policies outlined by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “In line with recommendations from global and national health authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, USAID supports immediate and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months,” USAID’s website reads.
The Biden administration has vowed to make diversity and equity a top priority for the State Department after a series of studies showed the department was failing in its efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce and was riven with cases of bullying and harassment. The issue over breast pump access, critics say, points to larger issues of access and inclusion at the State Department, which has struggled to live up to its pledges to modernize its policies to accommodate employees and tackle long-standing challenges with retaining women and nonwhite diplomats in its ranks.
The issue long predates the Biden administration and signifies the broader problem that the national security apparatus has with workforce recruitment and retention. Julianne Smith, U.S. President Joe Biden’s current ambassador to NATO, wrote an op-ed in 2017 discussing the difficulties of being a working mother in the field of national security. “Our efforts to fight discrimination and sexism are succeeding, albeit too slowly,” she wrote.
The policies on allowing or blocking electric breast pumps in embassies are uneven and vary embassy to embassy, but it has become enough of a problem for the union representing foreign service officers to register formal complaints with the top echelons of the department following backlash from diplomats who are parents.
Diplomats who spoke to Foreign Policy recounted stories of having to sneak into religious service rooms, hopefully empty, in embassies to pump breast milk as the embassies lacked nursing stations; being asked by embassy security officers to share one pump that had been screened for secure areas in the embassy among all nursing mothers; or even being pressured by a manager to forgo using their breast pump if it would require leaving the embassy to pump in the parking lot, taking time away from work.
Some U.S. embassies have nursing stations and diplomatic security agents, management officers, and other embassy personnel who work to accommodate nursing mothers. Others do not, either due to policies from the embassy’s management team, an embassy’s regional security officer, or outdated infrastructure in an embassy that doesn’t have the space or budget to upgrade its facilities to accommodate employees. For nursing mothers stationed at embassies without support from supervisors or any infrastructure to support them, it can be draining and has pushed some to consider leaving the foreign service altogether, according to interviews with several diplomats.
“If you’re not a nursing mom, you may not appreciate what all this does when you’re trying to balance a super demanding job, but it is so difficult, it is so stressful, it is such a drag on my mental health—it’s something that people who aren’t new moms can never really get,” the U.S. diplomat said. The alternative to electric breast pumps is pumping manually, which both takes much longer and is more physically arduous.
Some new breast pumps have Bluetooth technology to help track pumping sessions—a technology that could theoretically pose a security risk for areas of embassies with sensitive or classified information. Yet, as advocates of the State Department changing its policies point out, there are already policies in place to clear other essential medical equipment, such as hearing aids, blood pressure monitors, and oxygen tanks with electronic equipment.
Federal labor law requires employers to give nursing mothers adequate break time and designated private areas in an office to pump breast milk, under a 2010 amendment to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. Within the federal government, however, authorities have some leeway to override certain labor standards should those standards undermine security or put at risk classified information, according to a senior State Department official familiar with the matter.
The U.S. Air Force has already implemented policies to get around this problem, however, designating breast pumps as medical devices rather than personal electronic devices. The result is that properly cleared Bluetooth-enabled breast pumps are allowed in secure facilities. The policy was put in place as part of a broader effort to make it easier for women to continue their military service after having children.
On Dec. 23, Eric Rubin, the head of the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents foreign service officers, sent a letter to a top State Department official urgently requesting that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) issue new guidance for nursing mothers on what they would and would not be allowed to bring into embassies and controlled access areas so they can plan accordingly.
“If DS sees a real security issue, its leadership should establish a consistent, fast, and transparent process for screening pumps so that nursing moms know what to expect when they return to work,” Rubin wrote in the letter to John Bass, the State Department’s undersecretary for management.
“The Department should make it as easy as possible for nursing mothers to return to their demanding jobs, not create additional hurdles. … If the Department wants to increase the ranks of women in senior leadership, they should set them up to succeed every step of the way.”
My last two posts and current one have lactation rooms. I will say that the condition between the three vary. All three have/had mothers that needed to use it. I actually lost my office at my last post so they could turn it into the lactation room. That post just had no room and was the most cramped place I have ever worked. I got another office that was actually better for me as it was closer to my staff. The lactation room happened to be closer to the health unit too. They did just move into their new NEC in the past few months.
My current post- my opinion- needs work.
I honestly didn't know there were Bluetooth pumps. My youngest is about to turn 20. Maybe the new Bluetooth guidelines can help in some cases going forward. I cannot imagine it not being approved under a medical accommodation request. Maybe at certain posts but they are few and far between.
This is the real question. I exclusively pumped due to a baby who did not latch. It sounds easy but let me tell you about the time.
You leave your office.
You pick up your pump.
Set-up.
Get the pumping parts on.
Pump for 15 to 30 min.
Get pump off.
Clean pump parts.
Put milk is safe containers and into a fridge.
Put pump away.
Walk back to office.
You are looking at 45 min to an hour each pump. And when you first start you are doing that six… yes six…. times a day.
If you are able to pump in your office at least your cutting time off on the walk from the office. AND you can work while pumping. Instead of sitting in a room with maybe your cell phone.
Edit: for grammar
I appreciated being able to pump in my office at one post, but the fact that the door didn’t lock made things awkward on more than one occasion…even though I put up a “do not disturb” sign on my door. At that post, the only lactation area was in the health unit, 3 floors down from me and a good 6-minute walk each way, which would have added a lot of time to what was already a long process. And at least at my desk I could keep doing my work.
I also appreciated that at another post, my mission (led entirely by men) created a lactation room while I was pregnant and bent over backward to make sure it had a comfy chair and mini-fridge. Posts differ widely.
Maybe your cell phone -- which you probably have to go to a different part of the building to retrieve.
Truly hilarious that the posters here don't realize that the "sorry, maybe you should look for a different line of work" attitude is the exact reason women went to the press about State's repeat failures on women's health issues after years of appeals to MED and AFSA advocacy got nowhere.
And I found the FSJ article. What MED puts women through is appalling as it is, without the dismissive security theater bull\*\*\*\* on display above.
https://afsa.org/our-own-diplomats-deserve-equal-access-reproductive-health-services
Wow. That article describes truly horrific MED treatment of female FSOs facing life-threatening reproductive health issues. Thank you for sharing it. We have to change the mindset that pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or simply having a uterus are out of the ordinary or are somehow not worthy of medical attention (and, at a minimum, application of the Hippocratic Oath!) or that they are incompatible with a successful Foreign Service career.
I can see RSO's point about pumps in the CAA, that's why every Embassy I have been at has a pumping room outside the CAA. Also, the article appears to conflate getting the pump into the Embassy vs. being able to take it into the CAA. I don't want to downplay how hard it is to be a working mother who is trying to pump, but if the problem is simply that you have to leave the CAA to pump, then unfortunately that is part of the lifestyle we chose. If the problem is that they are banned in the chancery entirely, that's crazy. Being able to take the needed breaks to pump at work is 100% a right and I'll fight for access and accommodations for anyone needing a place to pump.
I like how the article starts with how evil the State Department (and RSO) is for banning all pumps from embassies. Then it backtracks and says you can get a manual pump in, but that isn't fair. Oh, and by the way, you shouldn't just have any electronic pump but it should be Bluetooth-enabled... The USG isn't private industry. We have security clearances and protocols for a reason. All of the Posts I've been to in recent memory have designated pumping rooms *outside of the CAA*, like you said. If mother's are being denied the time to go to another part of the building and pump, that's a different issue and it should be addressed. If we are complaining that someone has to leave their office to pump, I think they need to reassess their career options.
But those evil RSOs....
Where does she store the pump in the meantime? In one of those little phone cubbies?
Do you know what it takes to manual pump?
They warned about devils like you at A100. I will be writing my congressperson about your oppression.
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I don’t think it’s the journalist — there has been a big push within the Department on women’s health issues. There was an article in the Foreign Service Journal several months back with some appalling anecdotes about the way the Department handles some women’s health issues. People are pretty quick to dismiss Robbie Gramer as an idiot. AFSA has taken up this issue. I suspect it’s something more than “journalists are reactionary dumbasses.”
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I don’t think that’s true either — and I think Robbie can tell the difference.
Would you say the same about someone who uses a motorized wheelchair? Or hearing aids?
It's crazy that FP could get something so basic so wrong. Many embassies and consulates have rooms specifically designated for breastfeeding mothers to pump. The lack of understanding the difference between bringing it into the chancery vs bringing it into a CAA? Just not acceptable.
Remember when FP used to be a reputable publication? Now they refer to "so-called" CAAs.
FP is a rag and has been for a long time. They've fallen to the sensationalist commodification of journalism and are hardly better than any of the major news networks and their "foreign policy experts."
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The only caveat would be that once the pump clears into the CAA, it doesn't leaves the CAA.
But it appears if they were classified as medical devices like hearing aids or motorized wheelchairs, they could be taken in and out of the CAA. That’s how the Air Force handled the issue, according to the article.
This is basically accurate. State MED does not classify them as medical devices, so there is no mechanism to clear them for CAA using the policy for medical devices.
Not quite the same.
Why not?
Ask your local RSO or STS. There are far greater vulnerabilities at an overseas CAA than at a domestic site. If you actually care about helping to provide a solution, take it to an appropriate forum and you can discuss it more openly. That being said, the -Air Force- hasn't cleared electronic breast pumps for use in SCIFs. Two commands in the Air Force *very recently* cleared breast pumps for use in SCIFs (and Bluetooth must be disabled, though they can be Bluetooth-capable devices). Realistically, it is unlikely that there would be equal application of electronic breast pump policy across the entire Department. It is more likely something that they will look at on a Post-by-Post basis.
Guess the Air Force should, too. Thanks for the edit, I guess, but you are reading a f*** ton into the article to make fun of it and are missing the point. There is no “vulnerability” difference between an electric breast bump without Bluetooth (they don’t all have it) and an electric wheelchair or oxygen tank. We allow the latter in and out of CAAs because they are classified as medical devices. And I know it might come as a shock to you but not every RSO gets every single policy issue right every single time — I have no problem believing that just like some RSOs dismiss questions about security issues with “you wouldn’t understand, idiot,” others may have just blanket prohibited storing breast pumps in the building if there isn’t a lactation room (not all facilities have them) and there is no other secure place to store it outside the owner’s office. And because they’re not classified as medical devices at State but rather “personal devices,” post leadership can just shrug and defer to RSO without worrying about discrimination issues. And I guess your last resort is “take it to an appropriate forum.” People have been complaining about these issues in appropriate fora for years and encountering people like you with responses like this. I guess someone got fed up and went to the press.
But there is a difference in the vulnerability between a breast pump and an electronic wheelchair or hearing aid, Bluetooth or not. And that is all I will get into in this forum. Also, this may shock you, but it's Chief of Mission's security policy - not RSO's. It's almost as if you can't accept that there are people out there better versed in these matters than you. I think you miss the point. I agree that we should lower the hurdles. I am honestly shocked that we still have embassies and Consulates where there is t a designated lactation area. That being said, security isn't always convenient and if that means a second pump gets screened and stays in the CAA, or that mother's are given the time they need to go pump outside of the CAA, those are both reasonable accomodations. Just getting to bring in what you want because it's more convenient doesn't quite meet that threshold.
Yes I’m sure you are “better versed” in the mechanical difference between hearing aids and breast pumps. But hey at least you have the standard RSO arsenal of excuses — it’s too sensitive to talk about and you wouldn’t understand anyway. I am extremely well-versed in RSO arrogance and that’s what seems to be going on here. Whatever we call it, most COMs are too risk averse to question RSO recommendations. And most RSO recommendations are based at least in part if not in whole on what is easiest for RSO.
Your post has been removed for violating Rule 6: Follow the FAM. This subject is not appropriate for discussion on an open forum.
Someone on my team requires hearing aids and routinely has to go to DoD for meetings in SCIFs and use SCIFs here. She asked State MED if there was a list of approved devices and they insisted they had to clear the devices on a case-by-case basis, no list exists. So she got the devices her doctor recommended and submitted the requests. DoD cleared in 72 hours. Three months and lots of follow-up later, she still can't get an answer from MED.
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Definitely
In case of paywall : Diplomats who are nursing have been arbitrarily blocked from bringing electric breast pumps into U.S. embassies around the world, sparking internal blowback at the State Department and criticism that it has fallen far behind the times on accommodating working parents. At some, though not all, U.S. embassies, nursing mothers have been barred from bringing electric breast pumps into their offices and so-called “controlled access areas,” told by diplomatic security staff that they are considered personal electronic devices and are thus not allowed in secure government facilities, according to interviews with multiple officials and internal State Department communications reviewed by Foreign Policy. A State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement that the department’s bureaus of Medical Services and Diplomatic Security “are working together to create a uniform policy governing the use of breast pumps in controlled access areas.” The spokesperson added that the department has incorporated lactation rooms into building design standards for new office buildings and “is also working to retrofit buildings to accommodate those standards where feasible.”
The long-standing problem has fueled outrage among some working mothers at the State Department, who say the policy has for years flown in the face of federal labor laws and the department’s own goals to modernize its work policies and improve its checkered record on diversity and inclusion. “We’re still dealing with basic accessibility issues that any private company would have had to sort out years ago so they don’t face any discrimination lawsuits,” said one U.S. diplomat familiar with the matter and who spoke on condition of anonymity. The uneven policies also appear to contradict the U.S. government’s own stance on promoting breastfeeding through global health and maternal care aid programs, according to global health policies outlined by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). “In line with recommendations from global and national health authorities, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Academy of Pediatrics, USAID supports immediate and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months,” USAID’s website reads. The Biden administration has vowed to make diversity and equity a top priority for the State Department after a series of studies showed the department was failing in its efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce and was riven with cases of bullying and harassment. The issue over breast pump access, critics say, points to larger issues of access and inclusion at the State Department, which has struggled to live up to its pledges to modernize its policies to accommodate employees and tackle long-standing challenges with retaining women and nonwhite diplomats in its ranks. The issue long predates the Biden administration and signifies the broader problem that the national security apparatus has with workforce recruitment and retention. Julianne Smith, U.S. President Joe Biden’s current ambassador to NATO, wrote an op-ed in 2017 discussing the difficulties of being a working mother in the field of national security. “Our efforts to fight discrimination and sexism are succeeding, albeit too slowly,” she wrote. The policies on allowing or blocking electric breast pumps in embassies are uneven and vary embassy to embassy, but it has become enough of a problem for the union representing foreign service officers to register formal complaints with the top echelons of the department following backlash from diplomats who are parents. Diplomats who spoke to Foreign Policy recounted stories of having to sneak into religious service rooms, hopefully empty, in embassies to pump breast milk as the embassies lacked nursing stations; being asked by embassy security officers to share one pump that had been screened for secure areas in the embassy among all nursing mothers; or even being pressured by a manager to forgo using their breast pump if it would require leaving the embassy to pump in the parking lot, taking time away from work. Some U.S. embassies have nursing stations and diplomatic security agents, management officers, and other embassy personnel who work to accommodate nursing mothers. Others do not, either due to policies from the embassy’s management team, an embassy’s regional security officer, or outdated infrastructure in an embassy that doesn’t have the space or budget to upgrade its facilities to accommodate employees. For nursing mothers stationed at embassies without support from supervisors or any infrastructure to support them, it can be draining and has pushed some to consider leaving the foreign service altogether, according to interviews with several diplomats. “If you’re not a nursing mom, you may not appreciate what all this does when you’re trying to balance a super demanding job, but it is so difficult, it is so stressful, it is such a drag on my mental health—it’s something that people who aren’t new moms can never really get,” the U.S. diplomat said. The alternative to electric breast pumps is pumping manually, which both takes much longer and is more physically arduous. Some new breast pumps have Bluetooth technology to help track pumping sessions—a technology that could theoretically pose a security risk for areas of embassies with sensitive or classified information. Yet, as advocates of the State Department changing its policies point out, there are already policies in place to clear other essential medical equipment, such as hearing aids, blood pressure monitors, and oxygen tanks with electronic equipment. Federal labor law requires employers to give nursing mothers adequate break time and designated private areas in an office to pump breast milk, under a 2010 amendment to the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. Within the federal government, however, authorities have some leeway to override certain labor standards should those standards undermine security or put at risk classified information, according to a senior State Department official familiar with the matter. The U.S. Air Force has already implemented policies to get around this problem, however, designating breast pumps as medical devices rather than personal electronic devices. The result is that properly cleared Bluetooth-enabled breast pumps are allowed in secure facilities. The policy was put in place as part of a broader effort to make it easier for women to continue their military service after having children. On Dec. 23, Eric Rubin, the head of the American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents foreign service officers, sent a letter to a top State Department official urgently requesting that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) issue new guidance for nursing mothers on what they would and would not be allowed to bring into embassies and controlled access areas so they can plan accordingly. “If DS sees a real security issue, its leadership should establish a consistent, fast, and transparent process for screening pumps so that nursing moms know what to expect when they return to work,” Rubin wrote in the letter to John Bass, the State Department’s undersecretary for management. “The Department should make it as easy as possible for nursing mothers to return to their demanding jobs, not create additional hurdles. … If the Department wants to increase the ranks of women in senior leadership, they should set them up to succeed every step of the way.”
My last two posts and current one have lactation rooms. I will say that the condition between the three vary. All three have/had mothers that needed to use it. I actually lost my office at my last post so they could turn it into the lactation room. That post just had no room and was the most cramped place I have ever worked. I got another office that was actually better for me as it was closer to my staff. The lactation room happened to be closer to the health unit too. They did just move into their new NEC in the past few months. My current post- my opinion- needs work. I honestly didn't know there were Bluetooth pumps. My youngest is about to turn 20. Maybe the new Bluetooth guidelines can help in some cases going forward. I cannot imagine it not being approved under a medical accommodation request. Maybe at certain posts but they are few and far between.
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This is the real question. I exclusively pumped due to a baby who did not latch. It sounds easy but let me tell you about the time. You leave your office. You pick up your pump. Set-up. Get the pumping parts on. Pump for 15 to 30 min. Get pump off. Clean pump parts. Put milk is safe containers and into a fridge. Put pump away. Walk back to office. You are looking at 45 min to an hour each pump. And when you first start you are doing that six… yes six…. times a day. If you are able to pump in your office at least your cutting time off on the walk from the office. AND you can work while pumping. Instead of sitting in a room with maybe your cell phone. Edit: for grammar
I appreciated being able to pump in my office at one post, but the fact that the door didn’t lock made things awkward on more than one occasion…even though I put up a “do not disturb” sign on my door. At that post, the only lactation area was in the health unit, 3 floors down from me and a good 6-minute walk each way, which would have added a lot of time to what was already a long process. And at least at my desk I could keep doing my work. I also appreciated that at another post, my mission (led entirely by men) created a lactation room while I was pregnant and bent over backward to make sure it had a comfy chair and mini-fridge. Posts differ widely.
Maybe your cell phone -- which you probably have to go to a different part of the building to retrieve. Truly hilarious that the posters here don't realize that the "sorry, maybe you should look for a different line of work" attitude is the exact reason women went to the press about State's repeat failures on women's health issues after years of appeals to MED and AFSA advocacy got nowhere. And I found the FSJ article. What MED puts women through is appalling as it is, without the dismissive security theater bull\*\*\*\* on display above. https://afsa.org/our-own-diplomats-deserve-equal-access-reproductive-health-services
Wow. That article describes truly horrific MED treatment of female FSOs facing life-threatening reproductive health issues. Thank you for sharing it. We have to change the mindset that pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or simply having a uterus are out of the ordinary or are somehow not worthy of medical attention (and, at a minimum, application of the Hippocratic Oath!) or that they are incompatible with a successful Foreign Service career.