Location: Chapel Hill • Year Founded: 1998
Following a 10-week parental leave, Evelyn Bussell, a part-time a childbirth educator for the Women’s Health Education Center at UNC’s North Carolina Women’s Hospital and a full-time school library media specialist, brought her now two-year-old son to work for several months. She shares about her experience below:
“This worked for us in a few ways. Most of the time my whole family came to work with me. They would walk around the ground floor or outside until my son needed to nurse, at which time they would bring him to me—even during my class. I would then nurse him while continuing to teach. Sometimes I did this while standing and holding him; sometimes I did this while sitting; and sometimes I did this while wearing him in a wrap, sling, or soft structured baby carrier. On occasion, he would fall asleep nursing and I would simply continue to wear him while teaching. Then I would text my family to let them know to come get him when he woke up.
When he was closer to six-months old, we had a new educator that my boss asked me to observe. I would take my son with me, and we would sit in the back. He would “play” on the floor or I would wear him in a carrier and stand and could nurse him as needed. If and when he got fussy, I would take him out of the room.
All of this made returning to work there a lot easier until the point when I could be away from my son for extended stretches of time, as he never took a bottle and nursed on demand. As well, this showed new, expectant parents ways in which to nurse in public discreetly and multitask with a baby without compromising their care.”