Kadie Kovach and Margaret Melville
An Assessment of Public Lactation Facilities in Mid-to-Small Level Airports in
The United States of America
Faculty Mentor: Gene Cole, Life Sciences
Introduction
The objective of our research study was to assess mid-to-small sized airports in the
United States relative to their accommodation of lactating passengers who choose to breastfeed infants
and/or pump breast milk for later feeding while traveling. Our study was designed to identify which
airports offer the minimum requirements for a breast pumping mother; private space, other than a
bathroom, with a chair, table, and electrical outlet. Recent research has shown a shocking lack of
facilities to accommodate lactating women at the majority of large airports across the country, and we
hypothesized that the situation is even worse at the many smaller airports across the United States. As
such, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the true indicators of compliance with the US legislative
standard and to identify, in connection with the previous study, if US airports are breastfeeding friendly.
Methodology
This research was patterned after the research of Michael Haight and Joan Ortiz from the
publication “Airports in the United States: Are They Really Breastfeeding Friendly?” in the Journal of
Breastfeeding Medicine. This previous study evaluated the top 100 largest airports in the United States
(according to passenger volume) to assess lactation facilities and compliance to United States’ standards.
In order to continue with the research of this previous study and to provide a more comprehensive view
of lactation facilities in United States’ airports, we followed the format of the previous study. Airports
were selected from the Federal Aviation Association list of airports according to size and our research
was patterned after the methodology of the previous study as to ensure data compatibility and
comparability. Since the original study evaluated the top 100 sized airports in the United States in terms
of passenger volume, our study evaluated the airports ranking 101-200 from the United States Federal
Aviation Administration list of passenger volume. With this method, six airports were excluded from
our study and 48 responded to our request for information. This led to a 51% response rate among
airports that were surveyed.
We performed a voluntary response survey of these airports by identifying and connecting with a key
contact (management or customer service representative) at each airport through e-mail, online contact
forms, or by phone. Each airport was contacted three times with a request to be surveyed. We collected
data from March 27, 2016 through October 18th, 2016. Any data received after that time period was
excluded from our findings.
This study was evaluated and approved by the Brigham Young University Institutional Review Board in
the beginning of the year 2016 and was determined as not applicable to human subjects. In addition to
this, we have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Results
To begin the study, we asked each airport “Does your airport have a designated
breastfeeding/pumping room for the public?” We found that 34.8% of airports had a designated
lactation/breastfeeding room for the public (n = 46). We found that this percentage changed significantly
as we looked at certain regions. We found that the Central East and West Pacific regions both have
100% of their airports with designated breastfeeding/pumping locations for the public. Additionally, we
found that the Alabama and North East regions had 0% of their airports offering lactation rooms for the
public. Using passenger load groups, we found that the largest of the midsized airports (with passenger
loads greater than 600,000 annually) had the highest rate of having a designated breastfeeding area
(100% of airports having a designated area). Surprisingly, we found that the group with the second
highest rate of having breastfeeding areas (80% of airports having a designated area) was the smallest
airports (with passenger loads of 100,000 – 200,000 annually).
For those airports who did not have a designated breastfeeding location, we asked where employees
would send a woman who needed to breastfeed. 68% of airports responded by saying they would send a
woman to the restroom to breastfeeding or pump. Others suggested that women could express milk in
the gate seating area (8%), or wherever the woman felt most comfortable (8%). Still others (16%) did
not have an answer or refused to answer the question.
In our study, we asked each airport where their lactation facilities were located – inside or outside of the
secured area. 41.7% of respondents had facilities both inside and outside of secured areas, 16.7% of
respondents had facilities only inside secured areas, and 12.5% had facilities only outside of secured
areas. The remaining airports either did not know or did not have a facility. We asked airports if their
lactation room contained a table and found that 90.62% of airport lactation rooms had a table. Second,
we asked airports where lactation rooms were present whether or not their lactation room contained a
chair. We found that only 70% of the rooms contained a chair. Lastly, we asked airports who had a
lactation room whether or not their lactation room contained an electrical outlet and 100% responded
affirmatively.
We also assessed the prevalence of other airport facilities including smoking areas and pet relief areas.
We found that significantly more airports had smoking areas and pet-relief areas than lactation rooms.
77% of airports had a designated smoking area and 79% of airports had a designated pet relief area.
However, only 48% of airports had a designated lactation facility for the public. We found that 75% of
the airports that we surveyed considered themselves “breastfeeding friendly” and only 4.2% of airports
considered themselves not “breastfeeding friendly.”
Discussion
As per the previous study performed on the top 100 United States airports (as per passenger
boarding size) only 8% provide a private space other than a bathroom with; electrical outlet, table and
chair. Among the smaller airports, 23% provided lactation facilities of the recommended standard. This
is unacceptable that mid-to-small level airports are providing better facilities for lactating passengers
and employees than large airports within the United States. While the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act amendment requires employers to provide their workers with time and a place to pump
breastmilk, there are no facilities or universal legislative measures that require airports to support
traveling mothers.
Conclusion
As a result of our study, we recommend the following courses of action to improve
breastfeeding facilities for women in airports. 1) Airport employees need to be instructed with regards to
where passengers should be directed to breastfeed. 2) Airports need to supply facilities for their female
employees to breastfeed. 3) Breastfeeding mothers need to be provided with facilities, like smokers and
pets are accommodated. 4) Airport lactation facilities need to meet the minimum standards outlined in
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. 5) Legislative lobbying will be the most effective way to
create change because airports are typically municipally owned. Therefore, we recommend that those
seeking change to better the care and health of the American people act and use the data provided, on the
true percentage of United States’ airports that are providing lactation facilities for
breastfeeding/breastmilk pumping women and their children, to bolster their advocacy movements and
lobby for the legislation that is desperately needed by this demographic.i
Sources
Haight, M., & Ortiz, J. (2014). Airports in the United States: Are They Really Breastfeeding Friendly?
Breastfeeding Medicine, 9(10), 515–519. http://doi.org/10.1089/bfm.2014.0112