Rethinking Lactation Space

Abstract

The 2001 dedication of the Lactation Support Program at Virginia Tech launched an initiative meant to support the needs of breastfeeding employees and the progressive image of the university as a family-friendly institution. While the program created clean, comfortable, private spaces to express breastmilk, the institutionalization of lactation spaces in university construction policy was not accompanied by a planned education piece and consequently an opportunity to have a broader conversation about gender equity was lost. The absence of an ongoing conversation about the meaning and purpose of this important spatial allotment meant that the “production of space” was limited to the creation of a physical space, and failed to consider how powerful these lactation rooms could be in representing not just the material needs of some working mothers but also in facilitating a dialogue about what it means to be a worker and a mother.