Why Working Moms Worry Less, Thanks to Breast Milk Delivery
I’ve always had difficulty deciding the right time to return to work after the birth of each of my children. The decision was even more agonizing when I had to stop breast-feeding as a result of business travel requirements.
I have four children, ages 5 to 17. In 2007, I returned to work four months after having baby number three, just as I did with my first two kids. But this time, I had a global job that required travel. This was before I joined IBM.
For my first trip, not only was I gone an entire week, it was a trip to Japan with a 14-hour time difference. I had trouble sleeping as I worried about Addison — Is she missing her mom? How is she sleeping? Is she taking her bottle? I also knew my nanny would be using up all my stored breast milk that took me four months to accumulate. I was filled with anxiety as I was expressing and throwing away milk in my hotel. At that point, I began to question whether I should look for a different job that didn’t require travel, but at the same time I knew this was a temporary situation. This balancing act was the most difficult aspect of returning to work while I was still nursing.
Upon returning home, I made the painful decision to transition my baby off 100 percent breast milk — eight months before my target date — because my travel schedule made it impossible to continue. The same thing happened with my fourth child, in 2010. In both instances, I second-guessed whether I was making the best choice — sacrificing an immediate and temporary need for long-term goals that would ultimately help our family.
Some working mothers decide to forgo travel for many months, while others are eager to ease back into their pre-pregnancy schedule. Breast-feeding itself is a personal choice fraught with emotion. But one thing I realize now: Whether or not a company helps mothers transition back to work with progressive and forgiving policies has a huge impact on the moms who work there, and whether they want to stay at a company. Many of my friends, facing the same dilemma, chose to stay at home longer or moved to jobs that accommodated flexible work arrangements, job-sharing or working at home.
It goes without saying that after having my children, balancing work and family commitments became my number-one priority. I knew that I would not be reaching my full potential unless I found the right balance. That is why it’s so critical that employers make the transition back to work a priority, otherwise it often constricts a woman’s career choices after the birth of her child.
Creating a flexible environment for working parents simply isn’t on the radar of many companies. The stakes are high: more women want to return to work full time. Yet 61 percent of women say family responsibilities are a reason they don’t work.
The realities of working parents were the backdrop for IBM’s new milk delivery program. I was among a small group of women in HR who met in early 2015 to talk about expanding IBM’s paid “parental bonding” leave, which the company did this summer.
After we discussed paid parental leave, our conversation quickly focused on holistic solutions that would make it easier for moms to transition back to work. It was a distributed meeting, with some people present in the meeting room, and others, who work virtually — like myself — calling in. But the topic and problems were personal to everyone involved in the discussion that day, which made for a powerful afternoon. My colleague Lydia Campbell, who is a medical doctor and heads up the company’s well-being programs, brought up the challenge of traveling while breast-feeding. She had heard this from women she knew, and the issue hit home for many working moms we all knew, including ourselves.
The idea evolved into a concierge-type service where new moms could ship their expressed milk back home overnight, in temperature-controlled packages. We decided to use a mobile app to make it easy for moms to order labeled packages, which would be waiting for them at the front desk of their hotel when they arrived. The packages would protect the milk so they didn’t need a room refrigerator. It was important to us that there would be no cost for our new moms.
This was not the first time a company paid for milk delivery, but the onus was usually on the mom to arrange logistics. We tried to think of ways to make it effortless. The program launches this month in the U.S., and we’ll continue to refine it before expanding it globally next year.
It’s important for companies to understand that people need and appreciate flexibility to juggle work and their personal lives, whether it’s a new baby, a sick child, or an aging parent or relative. In IBM’s case, such programs date back to the 1950s, when the company began paid family leaves. Flexible work options began in the 1980s, along with the first national corporate child care initiative. Those are among the reasons IBM has been on Working Mother magazine’s 100 Best Companies list every year since the list has been in existence.
I realize many organizations can’t or won’t accommodate flexibility, but I hope more companies come to grips with the daily realities of the people who work there. When you are a working mom, your child’s ear infection becomes a crisis if you have to be in the office that day. And for women returning after a birth, we believe it’s important to provide options, whether it’s a leave of absence, part-time work, or waiting to resume travel to meetings or events.
I have had remote working arrangements since my first child was born 17 years ago. Since joining IBM in 2012, outside of business travel, I now work from home full time. I am thrilled for new parents who have more choices upon returning to work. Even though my children are no longer babies, IBM’s flexible leave and work-at-home policies have allowed me to balance a busy family life and thrive in my career at the same time.
Not only am I able to be home when my kids leave for and return from school each day, I also have flexibility to adjust my work schedule when necessary — whether that entails providing support during and after my son’s shoulder surgery, attending my daughter’s school musical, or ensuring my kids make it to their practices on time.
Treating employees well takes more than any single program. It’s about building compassion and trust into a company’s culture. Returning to work is hard for moms, and I hope more companies find ways to ease a new mother’s concern. Because so many of us know how it feels to leave a nursing or sick child at home, and walk out the door.
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