I Was Just Trying To Pump Breast Milk At Work. The Way I Was Treated Made Me Feel Like A Criminal.

"'He's not in,' I was told, the male pronoun making my spine prickle as I tried to navigate this deeply intimate, biological process. I tried to imagine my child's father dictating when I could pump, and the thought made me scoff ― and yet this stranger could? Did every single pumping employee and student go through this man to access the room? How many of us were there?"

""I still need the room today, can someone else help me?" I could feel my chest swelling both literally and figuratively, and tried not to let my breasts' increasingly urgent plea for relief come through in my voice. Between my burning cheeks and sweating armpits, my body was melting alongside the bag of ice in my thermos.The college's campus is deserted in the summer, and I knew the room was waiting there for me, empty."

"Four phone calls later, the officers located the Man In Charge of the Designated Lactation Room, and I was treated to another small lecture as we walked to his office. He reiterated that I should have contacted HR while I was still on maternity leave about using this room, and he waited for me to thank him for showing up to grant me access to it."

""I can give you 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., does that work?" he asked, without looking away from his computer screen on which flashed a completely empty calendar. He prompted me to confirm the exact two 20-minute slots I'd need to pump throughout the day. I tried to explain that I didn't always know precisely what time each day that I'd need ― and be available ― to use the room."

A mother returning to campus seeks access to a designated lactation room and encounters a single male employee controlling entry. The gatekeeper demands prior HR notification and offers only two fixed 20-minute slots despite an empty calendar. Repeated phone calls and enforced scheduling intensify physical discomfort as her breasts become engorged and she carries a milk-filled thermos. Campus emptiness contrasts with the imposed limitations on her bodily needs. The gatekeeper frames access as a favor requiring gratitude. She accepts the restrictive terms to end the interaction and finally gains entry to the room.

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