A new trend is giving a break to breastfeeding sports fans. Lactation stations have started popping up in sports spaces: basketball arenas and baseball and football stadiums.
Unlike bathroom stalls, lactation stations give moms a quiet and sanitary place to nurse their children—which most moms didn’t have just two decades ago.
In 1999, Americans were almost evenly divided on whether they felt breastfeeding mothers should do so in public or private, with nearly a third neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Today, over half of Americans say they feel comfortable with mothers breastfeeding near them—yet many public places aren’t the most sanitary.
Minneapolis’ U.S. Bank Stadium now offers a mothers’ room with a changing station, two private nursing areas and a television so fans won’t miss any action on the field.
Chicago’s Soldier Field recently installed a lactation station just in time for use by Bears fans; the facility is sponsored by Advocate Health Care, and is decked out with baby wipes, outlets for electric breast pumps and disinfectants.
Soldier Field’s station is from Mamava. U.S. Bank Stadium has four of the brand’s pods to complement its mothers’ room. They’ve also been placed at numerous airports, colleges, hospitals and businesses across the country. Some have even popped up overseas at U.S. Army bases in Germany and South Korea.
