In an office bathroom, amid the sounds of toilets flushing, a new mother pumps milk from her breasts into bottles that will later be fed to her newborn child.
At another company across town, a mother hides in a supply closet filling plastic sandwich bags with her milk, praying that none of her co-workers will need a pencil or pen.
Such unpleasant scenes, women's advocates say, are becoming more common with the growing presence of women in the workplace.
With more than 67% of all women of childbearing age in the labor force, according to one medical study on breast-feeding, some women's advocates predict that the issue may soon emerge from the shadows of bathroom stalls to become a part of the national discussion on the needs of working mothers and families in general.
Some experts and new mothers say the need for safe, clean places for women to pump milk for later use is almost as important to some working women as more commonly discussed issues, such as family leave and flextime.
"If you think about it, would you go and prepare your own lunch in a toilet stall?" asked Rona Cohen, an assistant clinical professor of maternal child health at UCLA's School of Nursing. "We wouldn't do that, but yet we're preparing our babies' food in toilet stalls."
Nell Merlino of the New York-based Ms. Foundation for Women says that businesses must confront their responsibilities to better integrate work and family issues. "They have become places," she said, "that are very separate from the rest of our lives and women are forced to try and change that because they have so much responsibility."
In some places, change has already started to occur. For the last five years, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has offered employees a lactation program complete with classes, 24-hour counselors, a pump for each mother and a lactation room. This year, Burbank implemented the same program for its employees, including an officer from the Police Department.
"It's an idea whose time has come," said John K. Nicoll, Burbank's management services director. "Once organizations try it, it will be as common as the existence of sick leave and medical plans."
Women's advocates and others say it is difficult to know just how widespread the problems really are. Many women simply stop breast-feeding when they return to work, anticipating the difficulties that may arise. Others continue but never inform supervisors about their needs.
