IBM's nursing mothers set to enjoy first-ever breast milk shipping service due to launch in September

 
 

 Technology companies offer their employees all kinds of perks, from free meals to unlimited vacation days.
Now, IBM has upped the ante, offering breastfeeding mothers a shipping service that will send home the breast milk they pump while they are traveling for work, according to a Fortune article published Monday.



The logistics of breast-feeding babies can be difficult, and hitting the road complicates the picture further. Being away from their babies means mothers have to find a place to store expressed milk and keep it cold enough to survive the trip home. Otherwise, they may have to “pump and dump” — discarding the milk they have pumped in order to keep their supply of milk flowing. Instead, IBM plans to organize a service for women to ship the breast milk back to their babies in temperature-controlled packaging whenever they travel for business.

 

“We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested,” Barbara Brickmeier, vice president of benefits at IBM, told Fortune. “As long as it appeals to a segment of our population and they feel that they can better balance their work and home, we will continue it.”

While IBM is still working out the details and how much it will cost, it plans to create an app to go along with the shipping service so that employees can specify which hotel they're staying in so that temperature-controlled packaging that will be waiting when they arrive, according to spokesperson Laurie Friedman.

While other companies reimburse workers for the cost of shipping their breast milk, Friedman says, IBM is unusual in offering a dedicated breast milk shipping service, due to launch in September. “It’s important for companies to look at innovative ways to help their employees,” Friedman said.

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