New lactation room at Widener Library

For nursing mothers returning to work or pursing their education, having a  private space to allow them to continue breast-feeding their child can help ease the transition.

As part of Harvard’s commitment to supporting a mother’s choice to breast-feed, a new lactation room has opened on the ground floor of Widener Library. The new room joins several other lactation spaces located across the University, but represents the first lactation room in the yard.

Christina Linklater, a cataloguer in Houghton Library, encouraged the creation of the new room. “I saw advocating for a new lactation room as a small but real thing I could do to soften the potentially difficult experience of leaving an infant to come back to work, for myself and for other new moms,” said Linklater.

Harvard College Library and Harvard University Office of Work/Life have partnered to provide the space the ground floor of Widener. It is located around the corner from the staff elevator in the Widener Cafe.  Any Harvard-affiliated nursing mother (faculty, staff, student, breast-feeding spouse/partner) can register to use the Widener lactation room. The room has a hospital-grade Medela pump, for which you will need to provide your own Medela/Lactina attachments.

Contact Jeanette Sanchez  at 617-495-3721, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday-Friday, for more information and to register to use the room.

More information about Harvard’s new parents program can be found on HARvie.