by Bryan Gibel
Daily Lobo
Gov. Bill Richardson signed a bill March 13 that requires employers to provide a private, clean space for breast-feeding mothers to pump their milk.
Graduate student Lissa Knudsen lobbied the Legislature in order to show how important it was to get the bill passed.
Lobbying wasn't easy, she said.
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"I felt like a fish out of water," she said. "This was the big time, and I'm a student, but it went really well, and we made it through with flying colors."
House Bill 613 also requires that employers allow flexible breaks for employees who breast-feed.
Sandrea Gonzales, director of the Women's Resource Center, said it is a step toward protecting breast-feeding rights for mothers at UNM.
"It's extremely important for nursing mothers, because in the past, it's been
difficult for them to find places," she said. "This makes it more convenient for a nursing mother to be a student, to be successful and to complete her education."
Knudsen said a mother's right to breast pump should be protected.
"This is an urgent need," she said. "If you're a nursing mother at work or on campus, you need a space to use a breast pump."
Knudsen said the campus initiative grew after GPSA presented a resolution to the Board of Regents for a breast-feeding support program on campus.
However, Knudsen said UNM's administration was slow to respond.
"I went to the Space Allocations Committee and spoke to some different groups about the issue, and most people were very receptive, but it was very slow in going," she said. "Even though the GPSA passed a resolution asking the provost to call for a task force to address this issue, that was never responded to."
Provost Reed Dasenbrock said no one came to him with a call for action.
"I do remember the resolution, but I don't remember being formally asked to set up a task force," he said. "I certainly wasn't trying to ignore them."
Although the Health Sciences Center set up a 24-hour breast-pump station in November, Knudsen worked with the New Mexico Breast-feeding Task Force to get the Legislature to ensure breast-pump access in the workplace for the entire state, she said.
Now that the bill has become law, Gonzales said it will make UNM a more family-friendly campus.
"UNM prides itself in having strong recruitment and retention initiatives, and this is a really important part of retention for nursing moms and for dads, too," she said. "If mom can continue her education and find a place to nurse her baby, it makes things easier for her and for him as well. It's an all-around good deal."
