Babies in the Workplace

   a place to nurse or otherwise feed the
   baby)

• Whether the employee plans to return
   to work full-time or part-time, and how
   often the employee plans to have the
   baby with them at work

• Planned method of feeding the
   infant (explain benefits of breastfeeding)

• Discuss policy and plans during division
   meeting attended by all division
   employees--especially any in the
   general vicinity of a baby

• Whether day care backup is arranged
   in the event of a fussy or ill baby

• Parent's current workload and any
   high-stress or intensive projects that
   may be coming up in the near future that
   may need more staff allocated to them
   while the baby is there

Discuss Details with Prospective Parents

   As Kerry Olsen of the North Dakota Department of Health explained, it was useful to discuss issues that might arise before each baby started coming to work. Brent Roper corroborated this view--he said that only once (in over 70 babies) was there a problem with a parent bringing their baby, and that it was due to not having problem-solved up front. Some things that companies found valuable to discuss prior to each baby's arrival at work included:

• Areas in which the parent thought they
   might need extra assistance when their
   baby was at work

• Logistics (available quiet room, what
   furniture the parent wanted to bring,
   what they would do with diapers or other
   trash, and what they needed in terms of