Flight attendants returning to work after having children are urged to have the right to continue pumping milk. Currently, they have to decide between continuing to breastfeed their babies or working as flight attendants.The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA–CWA), which represents approximately 50,000 flight attendants at various airlines, including United, Alaska, Frontier, explains that Flight Attendants are faced with many challenges when they return to work after having a child.Markus Mainka/ Shutterstock.comA spokesperson for Sara Nelson, the leader of the union, said that nurses Flight Attendants often have to decide between nursing newborns and returning to work to support their families.Flight attendants have to somehow find the time and the right place to milk an aircraft during their long shifts. Many nursing flight attendants find it impossible to express milk on an aircraft, no matter how hard they try. AFA states that Flight Attendants might have to stop nursing before they planned.The FAA Reauthorization Act of a few years back mandates that all U.S. airports have private rooms for nursing mothers. However, federal protections do not currently exist to protect flight attendants who are running late because they are using these booths to express milk.Current legislation in Congress could change that. It would provide mothers with a reasonable break and a private place to breastfeed.Currently, the legislation covers airline employees. However, AFA reports that some airlines lobby lawmakers to exclude flight attendants from the legislation.AFA did not name the airlines that were trying to prevent flight attendants from using milk on the job.Although the United States is one country that allows female flight attendants to work while they are pregnant, many crew members opt to leave at an early stage of their pregnancy. Experts say there is a higher risk during the first trimester.Other countries have banned pregnant flight attendants because of the risk that an emergency situation or evacuation might not be handled well.The pregnancy could also be affected by cosmic ionizing radiation, which is a real possibility. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a disruption in the circadian rhythm due to shiftwork and jet lag could also affect the pregnancy of flight attendants.
