Method, apparatus, and system for lactation accommodation

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and system for lactation accommodation with a product table that utilizes in one locale the combination of a chair, counter, sink, splash guards and anti-microbial surfaces to construct lactation support for nursing mothers that meets food handling and health care standards. A vertical splash guard is placed between the pump table space and the sink table space to reduce splash from the sink onto the counter. The system includes a sink with countertop hole to accommodate a hands-free faucet with or without water temperature control levers, but has no other holes or seams that will permit microbial growth. The lactation accommodation comes in two sizes, one non-handicap accommodation with shorter length countertop spaces, and a second handicap accessible accommodation with longer countertop space and is wheelchair accessible. The apparatus includes a chair attached to the table or floor so that it cannot be removed from the installation.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART[0001]This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 453,244 filed Mar. 16, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD[0002]This disclosure relates in general to the field of medical procedure and food handling counters and more particularly to human lactation accommodations.DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART[0003]During a typical eight-hour day at work or public facility, a nursing mother may require multiple breaks to collect expressed milk within a private and safe environment to maintain milk supply while away from nursing child. There are no existing, universal standards for the providing of such lactation support and accommodations applicable to work or public facilities.[0004]Some sites simply provide a vacant office or room with varying degrees of accommodations for nursing mothers to use during their breast pumping sessions. These rooms may include doors or curtains for semi-privacy, s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]The following disclosure presents concepts for improving utility of lactation accommodations for nursing mothers in work and public facilities. The disclosed subject matter significantly improves upon prior art aimed at providing nursing mothers with the needed milk expression support conveniently located in one area at the work or public site to return to the facility after childbirth. It is an object of the present disclosure to permit the meeting of the basic needs of nursing mothers of a private and sanitary space for breast pumping in one place minimizing the time for manual or automated milk expression, provisions for sanitizing hands and pumping equipment, while limiting the footprint of the space without restricting access and allowing for adequate janitorial cleaning addressing health care and food handling facility guidelines.

[0012]One aspect of the disclosed subject matter is an anti-microbial surface to ensure sanitation within the lactation accommodation to minimize cross contamination between users and efficient janitorial cleaning.

Problems solved by technology

There are no existing, universal standards for the providing of such lactation support and accommodations applicable to work or public facilities.

These are hard to clean and sanitize, leading to high cross contamination risks to subsequent breast pumpers.

Finally, the rooms may or may not have provisions for sanitation materials or utility faucets and sinks.

Rooms without sinks may require lactating mothers to go to another area with a sink to wash pumping implements, causing her to take more time and less privacy to accomplish the pumping task.

Additionally, any surfaces that may come into contact with skin and may not be operated hands-free increases microbial contamination risks and also the risk of faucet spray during breast pumping equipment washing.

These rooms may also include converted storage closets; these multipurpose rooms that are not dedicated to breast pumping does not guarantee that the rooms will be readily available for nursing mothers to use at certain times, e.g. during restocking of the storage space.

Further, storage items may cause risk to the breast pumping activity and result in contamination of pumped milk.

This is extremely unsanitary and does not meet the basic needs of nursing mothers.

Public bathrooms usually lack access to electrical sockets for energizing breast pumps and there is a high risk of contamination.

More particularly, other sites simply provide space that is available and does not take into consideration the fact that the rooms may be unsanitary, lacks access to water or electricity, does not meet health care or food handling guidelines, contains high risks of contamination, room access may be intermittent and inconvenient without reasonable expectations of privacy, or not easily and adequately cleaned by appropriate janitorial services.

The above-mentioned approaches may be impractical accommodations that do not achieve goals of providing a sanitary and private space for milk expression in a time efficient manner.

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