Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The ‘Pumpgate’ Incident: Stigma Against Lactating Mothers In The U.S. Workplace, Mary Bresnahan, Jie Zhuang, Jennifer Anderson, Yi Zhu, Joshua Nelson, Xiaodi Yan

Communication Studies Publications

Studies conclude that breastfeeding for six months is associated with better lifelong health for mother and child. Mothers in the U.S. returning to work after maternity leave report difficulty with the need to take frequent breaks to pump breastmilk so many stop breastfeeding. Factors discouraging pumping breastmilk in the workplace motivated a content analysis of public comments posted in response to a legal deposition that occurred in January of 2011 in which an attorney who was a new mother was challenged about taking a break to pump breastmilk. A total of 899 public comments posted on Yahoo in 2015-2016 in …