Liv Blog-#4
I am absolutely loving going deeper with my topic. The more I find out about women’s health and
motherhood rights in the military, the more I want to know. It is a topic that is personal to me and many
of my prior military friends. At times
as I am reading the DoD directives and publications about how mothers are
supposed to be treated, I remember back to my time as an active duty service
women and the stories of my female counterparts… and how were denied or
deprived of so many of the rights ascribed by the DoD. Many of the mandates set forth by the DoD are
up to interpretation depending on the services.
One order will state that you can have up to six months after childbirth
before being deployed, while specific branches state that after four months
after childbirth, a mother can be deployed.
How can a mother properly nurse and/or care for her child if she is made
to deploy when her baby is so young?
In addition to the shortness of recommended nursing time,
the Marine corps order of pregnancy states that nursing mothers should be
permitted sufficient time and clean accommodations for proper pumping while at
work or on duty. After reading the
order, I was reminded of a conversation that I had with other prior active duty
female service members, in which we reminisced about our experiences as mother
while serving. It was more painful that
pleasant to reminisce about my early motherhood experiences in the
Marines. There was no such order that
mandated clean and timely conditions for pumping. I was awash with emotions when I read that
mothers are not to pump while sitting on a toilet in a bathroom. I could not believe that it took until 2010 for
the Marines to figure out that mothers should not have to provide food for
their children in such disgusting conditions.
I remember sitting on the edge of a toilet in a jet exhaust filled
restroom to pump. I was permitted no
more than 15-20 minutes to complete the task and then was required to return to
work. Many times there was no soap or
properly running water for me to wash my hands to rinse my pumping
equipment. As painful as it is to have
gone through pumping in terrible conditions, I am grateful that now there are
orders to protect new mothers and their families. I hope that commands are interpreting the
orders appropriately and allowing access to new mothers for the proper
expression of breast milk for their babies.