Mothers with infants at Binghamton University can now retreat to a safe space to pump and breast-feed their children, with the creation of BU’s first lactation room.

Created in December 2014, the room is located in the Old University Union, room B018. It has a refrigerator, couches, pumping materials, books on parenting and a divider so multiple women can use the space at once. At the moment, it is only accessible after the student or faculty member requests usage and signs in at the Tillman Lobby information desk.

Some women feel uncomfortable breast-feeding in public; the lactation room provides a private space for women and children to feel more at ease.

According to Alysa Pomer, a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying anthropology and treasurer of the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), the idea of opening the room was in development for several years.

“For staff, if they requested space, then they were temporarily given somewhere private they could go,” Pomer said. “But there was no formal procedure for space for students.”

Last spring, the Graduate Women’s Association (GWA) and the BU Parents Collective (BUPC), an organization of graduate students with children, worked with the Student Affairs Administration at BU to create a survey on the need for a lactation room. After receiving positive feedback from student and staff mothers and groups like the BUPC and campus daycare center, the administration approved the room and the space opened last semester.

Alison Coombs, a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying philosophy and president of the GSO, said that though spaces designated for breast-feeding mothers at universities are common, SUNY schools fall behind the norm.

“Other campuses around the Northeast have them, and have had them for a while,” Coombs said. “We discovered that Cornell has over 15 of them. I searched for all the other SUNY campuses, and the only one that has one is Downstate Medical Center.”

For mothers like Madina Zabran, a fourth-year doctoral candidate studying computer science and a member of the BUPC, when she was breast-feeding a lactation room would have made her feel more welcome on campus, as both a student and a mother.

“It’s something that would’ve made my life a little easier,” Zabran said. “Not only that there’s a space where I could physically be to make sure my child is fed, but also feel supported and feel that we are a campus for everyone, including mothers who choose to breast-feed their babies.”

Zabran said she began her Ph.D. when her child was 4 months old, and had to drive home between classes to breast-feed and pump. She said she hopes more women find out about the room to help balance their careers as women and mothers.

“Until you’re a parent, you don’t even realize what [the room] is and how important it is,” Zabran said. “The more people who know about it, the more choices women have.”

According to Coombs, because there is no centralized resource center on campus for women, getting the word out about the room has been difficult, and according to the sign-in sheet no one has used the room so far. Regardless, she said the creation of the lactation room makes campus more accommodating for more people.

“It’s an important first step in making sure that there’s more support for women in all kinds of issues,” Coombs said. “This is one resource that can become available and the start of more services and support for women to become more integrated in the University altogether.”