Whenever new mother Carlijn Cober needs to pump breast milk, she takes her refuge in the disabled bathroom; the building’s official lactation room is insufficient. The university is looking into the quality of all lactation rooms on campus and is working on improving them.

A desk and chair, a fridge, and a radiator that stubbornly refuses to heat up. At best, the lactation room in the Erasmusbuilding can be described as sparse. The room also has two electric heaters which are moderately successful in keeping out the December cold.

‘At one point, this place was five degrees Celsius’, according to Carlijn Cober, PhD candidate at the Faculty of Arts, as well as a new mother. ‘You can’t pump under those conditions.’ Cober brought the issue to the attention of her PhD supervisor.

While she is technically still on maternity leave, Cober has been on campus quite regularly since November. On her first day back, she went looking for the lactation room, which after some searching turned out to be tucked away in the Erasmus building’s side wing, behind a study area. ‘But I never use the place; I use the disabled bathroom or a friend’s office, while the friend keeps watch outside.’

Cober is not the only one who has issues with the lactation room. There’s a little notebook in the room where users can share their experiences. Entries mention the ‘sad’ décor, the complete absence of a mirror (‘to see if everything’s back in place afterwards’), and – in the summer – the heat.

Cober considers it ironic that her faculty, with so many women working there, has a lactation room that leaves so much to be desired. ‘I’ve never felt like I was working in a male-dominated environment, until now’, she says. Cober thinks it’s important that the university is making plans for more diversity and inclusivity. ‘I’m thrilled that the university has been very active – and successful – when it comes to gender equality. But the disappointing nature of these facilities shows that there is still a lot of room for improvement.’

Investigation

The notebook mentioned earlier was put there by Diana Wannet and Julie Hornix, who are investigating all lactation rooms on campus on behalf of the Campus & Facilities division. Wannet and Hornix are disappointed with the issues Cober has pointed out and they are working on addressing the issues of the Erasmus lactation room; they have ordered a new radiator, for example. But they admit that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

‘New buildings are put up with a lactation room in mind’

Last spring, Wannet and Hornix received a student complaint about the lactation room in the university library. This made them decide to investigate experiences with all lactation room on campus. What started out a small project quickly grew into a serious investigation. All lactation rooms have been inspected and photographed, and together with users Wannet and Hornix have mapped out all the things that a lactation room needs.

One of their findings is that by no means all lactation rooms on campus are as bad as in relatively old Erasmus building. ‘The lactation room in Maria Montessori sees a lot of use, and people are very pleased with it’, says Wannet. People are also positive about the facilities at the Elinor Ostrom and Huygens buildings. The room in the green science building even has mood lighting and nice wallpaper nowadays.

Wannet and Hornix will be trying out new furniture for the rooms with several young mothers. ‘It’s very important to involve the users in this process’, says Hornix. ‘After all, they’re the experts.’

According to Wannet and Hornix, the university is well-intentioned when it comes to lactation rooms. When the Erasmus building was designed half a century ago, the architect didn’t draw up a lactation room. ‘But that’s very different now’, according to Hornix. ‘We’re taking lactation rooms into account in new building plans.’

Translated by Jasper Pesch.