With a growing number of young women entering the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, 18 new rooms on campus have been opened for them to nurse their babies.
The mothers also have access to a digital map that shows where the rooms are located.
This year, half of all new undergraduate students are women, and the share of women pursuing advanced degrees is also on the rise.
A comprehensive study among female students and alumnae, led by vice president for diversity and inclusion Prof. Adi Salzberg, revealed the need to establish a nursing and lactation room in every academic faculty.As a result of the survey, the Technion charted the exact requirements, set uniform standards for nursing rooms on campus, and purchased suitable furniture and equipment for each faculty, as well as for Student House and the Ulman Building, where all first-year students have classes.
The project was spearheaded by Liza Shamaliov Zaretski, who manages the Facebook groups “Women Students at the Technion” and “Moms at the Technion.”
“In December 2022, I checked the nursing room situation on campus,” she said. “Since many students return to the Technion after maternity leave and combine research with being a mother, I decided to take up the gauntlet and ensure that they would have nursing rooms that are close, accessible, and equipped – a room to nurse and to pump milk during the first few months after childbirth that would make it easier to return to their studies without having to give up breastfeeding.”
Taking mothers into consideration
All of the nursing rooms at the Technion are air-conditioned and equipped with a nursing chair, a diaper-changing station, a special refrigerator to store breast milk, and a work area that includes a computer table and chair. There is either a kitchenette or a sink inside each room for washing the pumping equipment.
“The welcome growth in the number of women studying at the Technion means that it is all the more important to provide the new mothers among them with suitable and respectful conditions for nursing or pumping milk in every department and faculty where they study or work,” Salzberg said.“Maneuvering between family life and work or studies is often difficult and challenging – even more so for nursing mothers,” she said.“The new nursing rooms are another way to help these women feel at home at the Technion. I would like to thank all those who worked on this important project and made it a success: deans and administrative heads; Deputy Director-General of Operations Zahava Laniado; Efrat Barkai-Goral, who is charged with diversity, equality, and inclusion; and Liza Shamaliov Zaretski, who led the project with great dedication.”