Medela, Mamava Team Up to Support Breastfeeding Moms at Work

New moms rejoice! Two of your favorite brands have teamed up in a really big way. Medela and Mamava kicked off a new partnership to help employers provide infrastructure, products and services to nursing moms with the end game to make new moms’ lives easier when they return to work.

Medela is the company behind the breast pump all your mom friends swear by, and Mamava is known for its mom-powering lactation suits in airports and other public spaces. Needless to say, this collab couldn’t be any better for working mamas.

While there are a handful of women who have seamless transitions returning to work after having a child, it’s sadly not always the case. And for many, pumping breast milk becomes an obstacle they have to work around. A word to the wise, know your rights. Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act gives an employee the right to reasonable break time to express milk for baby’s first year—and a private place to do it that isn’t a bathroom. Thing is, this right doesn’t apply at companies with fewer than 50 employees. And not all bosses may realize what the rights are, so you might still have to fight a little for a good place to pump, but you definitely should.

Your co-workers support may be even more important than you realize. Researchers have found the more support breastfeeding moms receive from their colleagues, the more successful they are in believing they can continue breastfeeding. They even went so far as to say that support from colleagues can be even more crucial than from your partner. Which is why Mamava and Medela are combining their efforts to get more mothers to meet their breastfeeding goals even after returning to work.

"Working moms are the backbone of the American economy, yet they have not been fully supported,” says Melissa Gonzales, executive vice president of Americas for Medela. “We are proud to partner with Mamava to unite their much-needed space solutions and our research-based product portfolio to improve the support available to breastfeeding moms in the workplace.”