Building a Resilient Workforce: Supporting Families with Work & Mother
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The journey of motherhood brings immense joy, but it also comes with difficult choices — one of the most critical being how to nourish and care for a newborn. While health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, only 20% of new mothers in the U.S. manage to reach that goal, despite 79% initiating breastfeeding. For many women, especially those balancing careers, the barriers to breastfeeding are steep. Employment status, lack of parental leave, and insufficient workplace accommodations can drastically shorten breastfeeding duration, forcing many mothers to stop earlier than they’d like.
The challenge is even greater when the pressure to return to work forces mothers to make difficult decisions about their family’s health and financial future. Leaving the workforce to stay home with a baby, while sometimes the only viable option, can have long-term financial consequences. A 32-year-old woman earning $60,000 a year, for example, could lose over $700,000 in wages and benefits if she leaves her job for five years to be a full-time caregiver.
Access to breastfeeding resources — like lactation accommodations, flexible work arrangements, and parental leave — isn’t just a matter of convenience, it’s vital for both the health of mothers and babies and the financial security of families.
The solution? Work & Mother.
A New Kind of Support for Working Mothers
Work & Mother is revolutionizing the workplace experience for new mothers by offering a unique and supportive solution to one of the most pressing challenges faced by working parents: balancing professional responsibilities with the need to pump breast milk. Work & Mother provides fully equipped lactation suites that allow mothers to comfortably and privately pump during the workday, all while ensuring they have access to high-quality supplies and resources.
The Work & Mother suites, which can be reserved via their easy-to-use app, offer private rooms outfitted with hospital-grade pumps, sanitizing supplies, milk storage bags, and even refrigerated storage. This thoughtful design ensures that new mothers have everything they need for a stress-free pumping experience, without having to lug around extra equipment or search for a suitable space.
The benefits extend beyond convenience for mothers. Work & Mother also partners with commercial properties and employers to satisfy legal obligations for tenants at scale, including PUMP Act mandates, and contributes to ESG initiatives and building certifications.
The PUMP Act, passed in 2022, expands workplace protections for breastfeeding employees by requiring employers to provide reasonable break times and private, non-bathroom spaces for nursing. Additionally, the PUMP Act gives nursing employees legal recourse if their rights are violated, helping create more supportive and inclusive workplaces.
Employers reduce HR risks by offering these suites within office buildings and create a more inclusive and supportive work environment. For landlords, this amenity can be a deciding factor for tenants.
“The Work & Mother Suite Contributed to a tenant’s lease renewal before the door to the Suite was even open.”
In turn, this fosters employee retention, particularly for female employees who might otherwise feel compelled to leave the workforce due to inadequate lactation resources.
“Having Work & Mother in the building was a material factor in my decision on which job to take.”
From Concept to Creation
Abbey Donnell’s journey to founding Work & Mother began with a vision rooted in her own future as a working mother. Although she hadn’t yet had children when she conceived the idea, she recognized the struggles that her friends and colleagues faced when returning to work after childbirth. Listening to their experiences of uncomfortable, stressful, and inadequate pumping conditions at work, Abbey realized that workplaces were not designed with new mothers in mind.
“The biggest challenge to breastfeeding mothers returning to work is figuring out how to manage all three jobs: motherhood, breastfeeding, and career. If an employer doesn’t have an adequate lactation space, it instantly puts all of these into a tailspin.”
At the time, Abbey was balancing her career in marketing while pursuing an MBA, where she actively developed Work & Mother as part of her studies. The idea gained traction when she won a pitch competition while nine months pregnant with her first child, solidifying her commitment to bringing her concept to life. Her insight was simple yet powerful: providing a space where mothers could comfortably and privately pump at work would not only support the health and well-being of working mothers, but would also benefit businesses by helping them retain valuable employees.
The Future of Lactation Support in the Workplace
Work & Mother closed their $3.5M Seed round in early 2024, led by Building Ventures, Claritas Capital, and The Artemis Fund. With their first location in the Nuveen headquarters in NYC, for a total of 13 locations open nationally, and another 12 in design & construction, the company is poised to continue their expansion. Abbey’s vision and her commitment to providing a solution to a critical workplace need has made Work & Mother an invaluable resource for both working mothers and their employers.
Work & Mother’s newest offering, Work & Wellbeing, broadens the reach of services, offering bookable, private, multi-purpose wellness suites with digital support resources to prioritize three pillars: body, mind, and spirit. This new service will address areas such as telehealth, meditation, prayer, and IVF, among other health and wellness needs.
By addressing the real challenges of workplace lactation and wellness, Abbey is helping pave the way for a more inclusive and supportive professional environment — one that acknowledges the needs of mothers without sacrificing their career growth.
Notable Press Mentions
- This startup is making breastfeeding suites a standard office amenity, finally
- How this Houston innovator created a whole new type of business to revolutionize the workplace for new moms
- Revolutionizing Lactation Spaces with Work and Mother
- To Support Breastfeeding Moms, This Woman-Founded Biz Installs Lactation Suites in Offices
- A Guide to Nursing at Work
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