Since it’s a challenge to look for a lactation spot in my current workplace, expressing milk at work has been very difficult for me for the last four months. But determined to keep my milk supply up, this working mom will do everything just to have a few minutes of putting that electric breast pump to good use.
One day, my sacred spot in the office (I forced the building admin to grant me access to this vacant room just so I can pump in privacy!) was turned into a storage room filled with useless computers, water containers and big storage boxes! How horrible was that!
“If I don’t get to express milk at work during the day, my milk supply will surely weaken little by little,” I said to myself. “Soon, I might lose that liquid gold!” Then, I imagined my baby girl crying in misery at night because she can’t get milk from mom! I must do something about it.
Good thing I found out from fellow moms’ blog posts that there is a lactation room in Robinsons Galleria, a mall which is just 10 minutes away from our Ortigas office if I were to walk. So braving the noon heat, I walked to Robinsons Galleria during my lunch break. Go mommy!
At the 3rd floor of the mall’s East Wing, I found the Baby Care Room where moms can privately breastfeed, express milk, and change baby’s diaper.
It’s a small space with only two chairs, a diaper changing table, and a sink.
But it’s big enough to welcome a strong-minded mom willing to do everything just to express milk for her baby. 🙂
Under the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009, it is mandated that all health and non-health facilities, establishments, and institutions shall establish lactation stations. The act also mandates that working mothers be granted lactation break intervals not less than a total of 40 minutes for every 8-hour working period. It is the right of every lactating mother. Spread the word.
Blissful Blooming 