U-M develops lactation icon

Of the 11 "lactation rooms" on the U-M and U-M Health System campuses, one already uses a newly designed icon sign to identify the facility. Leslie de Pietro, coordinator of the Work/Life Resource Center, hopes that's only the beginning.

(HR Communications)

"While breastfeeding has been around since ... well, since our very beginning ... rooms dedicated for supporting mothers who are nursing, and may need to express milk to keep breastfeeding, is a relatively new trend," de Pietro says. "We discovered that there wasn't a universally accepted icon to identify these rooms. So we worked with HR Communications to create a universal symbol, in much the same style as we designate restrooms."

Dave Pope, sign painter in the Plant Operations sign shop, also helped create the icon and resulting sign.

Currently, the sign is posted at the lactation room in the Administrative Services Building, 1009 Greene St.

As a member of the College and University Work/Family Association, de Pietro presented the lactation icon at a recent national conference. Additionally, she provided access to the icon for other campuses that wish to use it. Several showed interest in adopting the signage, and one is using it already.

"We are excited to be starting an official breastfeeding support program, after obtaining a three-year grant from the Orfalea Family Foundation," says Wendy Nishikawa, work/life coordinator, University of California, Santa Barbara. "The lactation icon, developed by the University of Michigan, will be a wonderful way for mothers to identify our lactation rooms."

For units with an established lactation room, the sign is available through Plant Operations Call Center, (734) 647-2059, at about $35 installed. For more information about lactation rooms on campus, visit http://www.umich.edu/~hraa/worklife/lactation/index.htm. A work request also can be submitted online at
http://www.plant.bf.umich.edu/workcontrol/PDF/Work_Request.pdf_.