Lactation rooms and nursing breaks on campus

Finding a room on campus

Many colleges keep lactation rooms in the library, the student union, the health center or a few academic buildings. A good room locks from the inside and has a chair, a table and an outlet, and some add a sink or a small refrigerator. Campus maps often leave them off, so ask the student parent office, the women's center or the Title IX coordinator for the full list.

Some rooms open with a key card, a door code or a booking system, and the code may change each term. Sign up for access in the first week, before you are standing at a locked door with a full bag. Note which rooms sit closest to each of your classrooms.

Breaks during class and exams

Title IX covers pregnancy and related conditions, and lactation is one of them. A student can ask the college for reasonable breaks to pump or nurse during a long class, a lab or an exam, and the Title IX coordinator is the person who arranges it. Write to that office with your class times and the length of break you expect to need.

Exams take the most planning. Ask whether a timed test can pause while you step out, or whether you can sit it in a testing room near a lactation space. Labs and clinical placements may have safety rules about leaving the floor, so raise those dates with the coordinator and the instructor early in the term.

Sign up for access in the first week, before you are standing at a locked door with a full bag.

When you also work on campus

Student workers, teaching assistants and work-study students are employees as well as students. The federal PUMP Act gives most employees reasonable break time to express milk for up to a year after a child's birth, in a private space that is not a bathroom. Tell your supervisor what you need, and contact the campus human resources office if the time or the space does not appear.

Your state may have its own workplace lactation law that reaches further than the federal one. The state labor department publishes those rules.

Storing milk and fixing gaps

Shared refrigerators in lactation rooms are common, but a small cooler with ice packs keeps milk safe through a long day without one. Label each container with the date and your name.

If the only private space offered is a restroom, or a room is missing from a building where you spend most of your day, put the problem in writing to the Title IX coordinator. The college has a complaint process, and the coordinator can explain each step and how long it usually takes.