Though 74 percent of childbearing women in Iowa initially choose to breast-feed, only 35 percent are still breast-feeding six months after giving birth, a figure that lags behind the national average, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health.

In response to these statistics, the department has been trying to raise awareness among employers about the importance of setting up a lactation room in their facility.

In addition to setting an example by opening a lactation room at the Capitol complex in the Iowa Workforce Development building, the IDPH has been seeking about $80,000 in grant money that would allow it to train employers on the importance of having such a facility and how to establish one.

“In Iowa, what we’ve seen is that more women are in the work force and have young children under the age of 5,” said Holly Szcodronski, breast-feeding coordinator for the IDPH’s Bureau of Nutrition and Health Promotion.

After conducting evaluations with mothers who have used the room at the Capitol complex, Szcodronski said she believes the reason women stop breast-feeding six weeks after delivering a child (the time when most women return to work) is that there is no place where they can pump their breast milk when they return.

“It used to be that if you’re going to go back to work, the best you could do to breast-feed your baby is six weeks, because once you started work, that’s it,” said Katherine Reardon, a nurse with Meredith Corp. Now, she said, many mothers will continue for more than a year.

Before Meredith established a lactation room 10 years ago, Reardon said women who continued breast-feeding had to use an employees’ restroom, find a secluded corner or go to their cars to pump. Not only did it increase the risk for infection, but also made employees feel uncomfortable.

Meredith’s lactation room is a separate room in its medical department that can be locked. It has a sink and a lactation machine, even though most women now purchase their own pumps. An average of eight to 10 mothers may use the facility two to three times a day, so the department offers other rooms if needed.

With just under 150 employees, NCMIC Group Inc., an insurance and financial services company based in Clive, also has provided a lactation room, even before it moved to its new campus four years ago. The room on its current campus is located in a private hallway and contains a refrigerator, sink, table and comfortable chairs.

The company decided to provide the benefit, said Judy Bohrofen, vice president of human resources, as part of its goal to be employee friendly when it built its new campus.

Szcodronski said employers who don’t provide such a facility are likely male and don’t understand the importance of having it. But that seems to be changing. About 20 years ago, it was taboo to talk about breast-feeding, said Reardon, “Now our society is really a lot more comfortable with natural occurrences like that.”

The price of a pumping machine also has become more affordable, which has enabled more women to have them, Reardon said, and more hospitals are spending time training new mothers.

A simple lactation room, said Szcodronski, only requires a room with a door that locks, an electrical outlet, a chair and counter space, but the benefits can be huge.

The employer saves money by reducing the chances the employee and her baby will have health problems, Szcodronski said, which can reduce the time the employee misses work and lower the number of health insurance claims. Szcodronski said research shows that breast-fed babies have fewer incidents of diarrhea, ear infections and respiratory infections, along with decreased eczema and reduced severity of allergies. It also reduces the mother’s risk for breast, uterine and ovarian cancers, and sometimes post-partum depression.

In a competitive work environment, lactation rooms can be a way to attract and retain talented employees.

“We know [new mothers] feel comfortable coming back not only because of the facility, but also the culture the company has set with providing that kind of facility. … From our standpoint,” Bohrofen of NCIMC said, “we feel we hire the best employees and want to retain the best employees and we want to have them contribute at the highest level possible, and I think that’s one benefit that allows them to do that.”