According to Air Force policy, lactation rooms must have a table, a place to sit, electrical outlets, adequate lighting and comfortable temperatures. The rooms are also required to be near a source of hot and cold water for handwashing and sanitizing breast pumps and parts. (U.S. Air Force)
The Air Force recently opened three private compact rooms for nursing mothers at the home of the 18th Wing on Okinawa.
The “lactation pods” are available at the Rocker Enlisted Club, the Officers’ Club and the Schilling Community Center, according to a May 29 post on the base’s official Facebook page.
The pods are not the first at a Pacific air base; last year Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo installed one in its passenger terminal.
The post credited the Air Force Women’s Initiative Team with helping to create pods at Kadena. The service-wide initiative was created to identify and “advocate to eliminate” barriers to women’s service in the Air Force through policy changes, according to its mission statement posted online.
The Air Force mandated in 2019 that units provide nursing mothers access to a lactation room that is private, secure and sanitary with proper ventilation.
“This advancement shows the 18th Wing’s priorities to care for Airmen, families and modernize the installation,” Kadena’s post said.
According to the policy, lactation rooms must have a table, a place to sit, electrical outlets, adequate lighting and comfortable temperatures. The rooms are also required to be near a source of hot and cold water for handwashing and sanitizing breast pumps and parts.
A medium-sized pod with a lounge chair and sink costs around $13,000, said 1st Lt. Mary Davison, the 18th Wing women’s initiative team leader.
“There will be more lactation pods at different locations around Kadena Air Base in the future, as multiple units have requested pods for their facilities,” she told Stars and Stripes by email Wednesday. “This fiscal year, we plan to purchase the last few lactation pods needed to bring the Wing into compliance.”
The service has been working to educate airmen about the importance of accessibility in the workplace, Davison said.
“This initiative works towards tackling pregnancy discrimination and maternity bias in the workplace by bringing up the conversation on why these resources are needed and by protecting our Airmen’s rights to be able to pump and care for their families,” she said.
The new lactation pods received positive feedback from some nursing mothers at Kadena.
“I think they’re a wonderful much needed addition,” Katie Borgen, Air Force veteran and active-duty spouse, told Stars and Stripes by Facebook Messenger on Monday. “Having somewhere I can take my 4-month-old and feed him comfortably is a necessity.”
Borgen said she couldn’t find a place to comfortably feed her baby, 6 weeks old at the time, during a March event at the enlisted club.
“I had to sit in a corner of the hallway against the window and try to drape a blanket over his head so I could have some privacy and modesty,” she said.
But another nursing mother said the pods aren’t for her.
“I think they’re a great option for the women who are uncomfortable to nurse in public,” Allison Callaway, spouse of a civilian employee at Kadena, said by Facebook Messenger on Thursday.
“I have been nursing my son for 8 months and it doesn’t matter where we are, he enjoys looking around,” she said. “So, stopping what I’m doing to enter a pod or even waiting for a pod to become available is not something I will be doing this summer.”
