Breastfeeding rights at work - please clarify for me please! I start in 3 days!

[carrie3003]

Returning to work part time after 10.5 months mat leave. Breastfeeding.

It is a new job (bank hours so 0 hour contract I can work when I like). Not worked there before.

First shift and induction is on Friday morning for 6 hours - a 20 minute break.

I have emailed and said my baby will be brought to me around 10/11am for a feed. (I read online that you need to tell your employer in writing you’re breastfeeding so that’s why I emailed)

They have just emailed back:

“That’s fine, we can look to work your break around that time if that’s ok with you”

I don’t have to use my break for this do I?
Surely as a breastfeeding mother I am entitled to my full break for me and a 10 minute breastfeeding “break” for my baby?
They can’t make me use my break to breastfeed can they?

What do I reply? It’s really shocked me as I thought she would just reply saying “yeah that’s fine”

Please tell me I’m not mad. AIBU? I need clarification on my rights and what to say back.

Not keen on returning to work as it is and now this has pushed me even more to just not go!

Thank you in advance lovely ladies xx

https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/continuing-to-breastfeed-when-you-return-to-work/

www.hse.gov.uk/mothers/employer/common-risks.htm

not for a 6 hour shift

Why can’t you just admit you were wrong? You didn’t give an opinion, you said that legally employers have to give breaks. Which isn’t true. No one’s bullying you by pointing out you’re spreading misinformation and then trying to wiggle your way out by saying it was an opinion.

it’s prorated for part time

I’ve lost it here as I was busy doing other things but it you only work 6 hours you are not entitled to a break, you can go to the toilet or if the company decides to give you a break they can but you need to work longer than 6 hrs and as i said before you are 0 hrs contract so they don’t need to offer and you don’t need to accept .

What’s so funny? A number of women (included me) have commented to say that their employer offers this.

As to why they do it, I’d imagine it’s to encourage women back into work/better facilitate the transition of returning to work.

Women are having less babies; the government are under pressure to introduce more incentives. It really wouldn’t surprise me if this became established as a legal right.

It really wouldn’t surprise me if this became established as a legal right.

Having children and breastfeeding them is a lifestyle choice so this would be no doubt be deeply resented by others who were childfree or who had other arrangements. They would be picking up the slack.

In one workplace we got a 15 minute break wjich was supposed to cover a drink/cigarette/toilet or what have you. However those who smoked took an extra unofficial break on top later in the shift. So those of us who did not smoke were subsidising their lifestyle choice and picking up the slack. The manager did nothing to check this. So I also took to having a "toilet" break that I did not physically need in order to promote a more level playing field.

I don’t know what a cigarette break has to do with a breastfeeding break, comparing the two is ridiculous. You also sound extremely petty (as does your workplace- policing people’s toilet breaks?! Was that prison or work?)

Having children and breastfeeding should be encouraged. It benefits you too (who do you think will pay your pension in the future). There is a low birth rate in the UK. The UK has also one of the lowest breastfeeding rates globally. So like the poster above said, sooner or later, the government will probably want to look at introducing pro family policies like many other countries .

Genuinely though how would it work in jobs where you just cannot leave on request? I’m in a job where I can’t even go to the toilet at times as my job means I just can’t leave until an appropriate time. Some jobs there just won’t be an appropriate time. So if it legally means companies have to allow it how do they get round it?

The same way they get around anything else I suppose - make it a requirement where “reasonably practicable”. If you’re in the middle of conducting life saving surgery it won’t work; ditto if you’re flying a plane. If you’re sat at a desk inputting data it’s easy.

@Friendlygingercat I can appreciate that perspective, but the two things are very different. It isn’t in anyone’s interest to incentivise smoking; it’s in societies interest to incentivise women to have children and in the employer’s interest to facilitate mother’s returning to work.

Also, breastfeeding is not a break in the usual sense. It’s a break from work duties, and possibly and opportunity to doom scroll on your phone but you aren’t free to do as you please.

From an Irish experience, yes you are "entitled" to breastfeeding breaks, but it's very much job dependent. I'm a nurse. I had to be present at both ends of a shift for shift handover, so I couldn't start or end my workday early, unlike some of my office based, or teacher friends. I was able to take my break as soon as I had my work finished, as there's no extra cover. I'm sure all the NHS nurses and carers know what happened next... 😁 nothing!! There never was an end to the work!! So unless one of my colleagues very generously took on some of my workload I didn't get a breastfeeding break.

As a Union rep I've helped several teachers get this in schools...

i don’t think any woman should be obliged to pump rather than breastfeed her baby, for a multitude of reasons, not least that the health benefits of expressed breastmilk are not equivalent to a baby actually breastfeeding. In addition some babies won’t take a bottle even of expressed milk, it can take considerably longer to pump (meaning the OP might overrun her break or have chance to eat or go to the toilet at all
during her shift) sone women just dislike being connected up to a machine to be pumped like a cow 😕

Time to express is allowed (but around breaks etc) but time to feed your actual baby who is in the school..... I have no idea how that would work.

When my little one was brought to me I was given one of the side rooms to go and feed my baby, it was certainly much quicker than if I’d had to set up and extract my milk, label
and take my milk via a pump to the fridge. At that age many babies are done in 10 minutes for a day time feed. Children were not usually allowed on the premises but due only to risks related to a mobile child. Obviously an older baby could be mobile but it can be made clear the child has to be held af all times whist on the premises. When I was at an external venue on a course then I went to the car to feed. With one of my babies there was an on site nursery so I would just go and feed there on my lunch break. It actually requires fewer facilities to just breastfeed your baby compared to expressing. I would not have felt comfortable expressing except for in a very private room and obviously need a fridge etc too but all I needed to breastfeed my baby was a chair, although somewhere slightly quieter and private is appreciated. Just to say there are wearable breast pumps now and that might be a great solution in some cases, although they’ll not necessarily suit all women and are quite expensive

My friend is in Norway where it’s quite common to have your baby brought to you (often from nursery by nursery staff)

they seem to just apply common sense-it’s fairly easy for office workers but obviously a pilot wouldn’t do it 😂

she’s an architect and doesn’t have the baby brought to her when she’s on site.

I understand you want to carry on BF & that you live only a short walk from work but would you consider expressing & giving a bottle to whoever is caring for your child to give to them? That way you don't have to use your break or make up time if you take extra breaks to feed. You can still BF in the mornings before work & in the evenings after work but it's easier during working hours to give a bottle. I had to give up BF both of my DC earlier than I wanted because at the time, over 25 years ago there were no policies allowing us to feed at work & no designated area to pump & I wasn't prepared to use the manky toilets to express.

Some babies won’t take a bottle, expressing usually takes longer than just feeding your baby plus doesn’t confer the same benefits to baby and will reduce your milk supply if not done at the same time as you normally would of fed baby.