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College of Arts and Sciences recognized by Boulder County Public Health as a Breastfeeding Friendly Organization

James W.C. White’s daughter was nursing an infant while she attended the University of Colorado Boulder, and she mentioned that there was really no place on campus to breastfeed.

Lactation room in Ketchum on ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ's campus.

The news was “really quite personal to me,” says White, now interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, but then director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) on the university’s east campus. 

At INSTAAR, White worked to create places in which mothers could nurse their young. Last year, the college realized a similar initiative, establishing two private lactation rooms on the main campus.

The reflect a lactation space policy that guides the college’s pursuit of lactation space. Because of these efforts, Boulder County Public Health has certified the college as a Breastfeeding Friendly Organization, a designation made possible by the . 

Lactation room in Hale on ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ's campus.

The college’s journey began in 2017, when White asked Zack Tupper, the college’s assistant dean of infrastructure, to assess the support system for nursing mothers. Tupper secured funding to create lactation spaces in Hale Sciences Room 165 and, later, Ketchum Room 330.

The Hale space opened in 2019, and the Ketchum space opened in November 2020.

Tupper collaborated with Sarah Westmoreland, a ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ employee who works in the Education Abroad office and who volunteers with the .

Westmoreland, who graduated in 2003 from ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ with degrees in molecular, cellular and developmental biology and French, introduced Tupper to Boulder County Public Health, which helps employers better accommodate employees—and in the university’s case, students—who are breastfeeding.

In February, the county health department recognized the college as a . The designation reflects the fact that the college “has prioritized the needs of its breastfeeding staff and students with a written lactation policy that guarantees time and a private space for milk expression during the workday,” the county states.

Babies who receive breastmilk gain lifelong protections against many chronic conditions, acute illnesses and certain cancers, research suggests. 

“And yet, a large number of new parents do not reach their breastfeeding goals because the juggling required when returning to work or school is too big of an obstacle,” said Heather Elkins, Boulder County’s breastfeeding friendly environments program specialist.  

Elkins added that by establishing lactation spaces and establishing a lactation policy, the College of Arts and Sciences “works to break down all barriers for staff and students to be able to do their best work, achieve economic vitality and provide optimal nutrition to their children.”

Westmoreland hopes that other colleges, schools and departments on campus follow suit and apply for a grant to improve a lactation space in their building. At present, there are nine lactation spaces on the ����������ý�Ļ���Ʒ main campus and nine on the east campus.

“I’m thrilled to see A&S at the forefront of this initiative on Boulder’s main campus. These spaces make a world of difference to lactating employees and students, and the benefits to their children are countless. I hope this is only the beginning of work with Boulder County Public Health to establish more lactation rooms on campus,” says Westmoreland.

For White, taking this initiative was an obvious choice: “I thought it was a real, tangible illustration of how far we needed to go to be a university and employer that understood the differential challenges that men and women face in the workplace.”

He is troubled by the differential treatment of men and women in society. “We’ve got a way to go in terms of leveling the playing field,” White says, adding that establishing lactation spaces “says the right thing about how we value our employees and how we value our students.”