TMW – When Your Assigned Reading Includes a Law You Advocated For

That moment when your assigned reading includes a law you advocated for. 🤯

This week’s lesson in Health Equity & Social Oppressions looked at poverty and socioeconomic disparities and how those forces shape fertility, pregnancy, and perinatal outcomes.

As I am reading through the required materials, there it was – the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act. These are two laws I’ve spent years helping to advance through my work at MomsRising.

These laws didn’t just happen. They’re the result of organizing, storytelling, and persistence. They represents parents who refused to be pushed out of the workplace for being pregnant or breastfeeding. 

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ensures reasonable accommodations for pregnant and postpartum workers.  Accommodations for workers as simple as things like extra bathroom breaks, light duty, or wearing a uniform to help fit a growing belly without risking their job. The PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act guarantees time and a private, non-bathroom space to pump at work. For so many families that simple protection changes everything.

When I worked on these campaigns the focus was ensuring that new and expectant parents are not forced to choose between a paycheck and their health. Now, studying these same laws in the context of maternal health and midwifery brings it full circle. Care doesn’t end when a family leaves our office, it extends into where we live, where we work, and the systems that shape both.  THIS is why I do the work.

If you’re pregnant or pumping at work, or know someone is – learn more about the Pregnant Worker’s Fairness Act and the PUMP for Nursing Mother’s Act over at MomsRIsing.org and connect to free legal help through A Better Balance or the Center for WorkLife Law.