Designated private breastfeeding spaces in the university sector: an audit of one Australian university

Our study focuses on designated breastfeeding rooms on campus at a leading Australian university. Universities have a growing female staff and student cohort, including breastfeeding women who are legally protected to breastfeed. As part of a wider university initiative to improve gender equity and family friendliness, our study used a walk-through audit to evaluate 11 designated private breastfeeding rooms on campus. The rooms were benchmarked against criteria derived from the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s Baby Care Room award checklist. Eight of the 11 designated breastfeeding rooms were purpose-built with excellent facilities, but the majority were difficult to locate and access. Our analysis found that clarifying access requirements and improving signage to designated breastfeeding rooms would signal the inclusion and valuing of the lactating body on campus. This, in turn, would contribute to a more welcoming organisational culture for breastfeeding women visiting, working or studying on campus. We situate our results within broader feminist perspectives on how ‘leaky’ embodied practices of reproductive labour challenge prevailing workplace norms about productivity. Our findings may apply to other publicly-engaged and outwardly-facing organisations who provide services or employment and wish to improve their lactation rooms.