How would you feel if you had to eat your lunch in the restroom stall? What if someone told you to go to the restroom to prepare your dinner?
Currently, this is how nursing babies who come to USF St. Petersburg eat their meals.
But plans are in the works to set aside a specific room on campus where mothers can breastfeed their babies.
The room is planned to be in Student Life Center 2012.
Dwayne Isaacs, assistant director of the University Student Center, said he’s working on the room with the Wellness Center. The space modification request was submitted, and now it’s a bit of a waiting game. If the project goes as planned, it will be ready for the new school year once the renovations in the SLC finish in August.
Many of the details still need to be worked out. Isaacs said they still need to figure out where the funding will come from. But overall, he’s very optimistic.
“There’s definitely a need, so we’ll definitely push to make it happen,” he said.
The idea was brought to attention by senior anthropology major Indira Goins. She has an 8-month-old baby named Omni, whom she often brings to campus. Goins noticed the absence of a private place on campus where she can breastfeed her baby.
Goins resorts to going to the Wellness Center, but it has its limitations. She says she can only get a room to breastfeed by appointment, and the Wellness Center closes at 5 p.m. After 5, it’s off to the restrooms.
During student government elections, Goins reached out to Nia Joseph and Chardonnay Tyson’s ticket online, which advertised commuter recognition. Tyson said she met with Goins in person, and Goins voiced her concerns about the need for a parenting room on campus.
“We’re not a traditional school,” Tyson says. “That’s a service commuters do deserve.”
The new room will also be a place for mothers to pump breastmilk. Even if Goins doesn’t have baby Omni with her on campus, she still has to use a pump to “keep up the supply.”
Goins said instead of the “mothering room,” she would want it to be called the “parenting room,” so it wouldn’t be restricted to any specific gender.
Both Goins and Tyson said they’ve been working to make this room a reality throughout this semester, talking many people, including administration, student government and students in general.
While most jumped on the idea of a breastfeeding room on campus, some weren’t as supportive. Goins says someone went as far as saying she has “dirty nipples” when trying to find someone to help with the issue.
Public breastfeeding has been a hot topic in the news lately. More and more public places, including airports, shopping malls and universities have implemented spaces for mothers who breastfeed.
The school recently designated the gender neutral restroom on campus as an official breastfeeding area. Goins originally agreed to this, but now said she regrets it. She said she’s happy the school is recognizing the need for mothers who have to breastfeed on campus, but she doesn’t want to give people the wrong idea that breastfeeding in a restroom is acceptable.
