TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. —
Due to the suggestions from Airmen and the work of the Girls’s Initiative Groups, efforts to increase assist of working moms throughout Air Pressure Sustainment Heart bases continues, together with entry to lactation rooms and pods, reclassification of wi-fi breast pumps to permit entrance into safe areas and easy accessibility to maternity uniforms.
Tinker, Hill and Robins Air Pressure Bases proceed to work with their native Girls’s Initiative Groups to establish, create and preserve non-public, securable and clear lactation areas.
Megan Kane, Air Pressure Life Cycle Administration Heart, Armament Sustainment Division, is the creator of the Robins Air Pressure Base, Georgia, digital lactation room map. “Our major aim was to supply present data to attach individuals who wanted to make use of a lactation room with the contact folks for requesting use of these rooms,” she stated. “We additionally needed to convey consciousness of the requirement for lactation rooms for nursing Airmen to everybody on base.
“The map was created by a program utilized by Civil Engineering known as the AFMC Portal and we made it accessible by a QR code to registered customers. It permits customers to simply scan and request use of a close-by room.”
Main Solange Douglass, Airborne Air Management Squadron and Tinker Air Pressure Base Girls’s Initiative Workforce; Jessica Todd, Tinker AFB Federal Girls’s Program Supervisor; and Stephanie Knight, Tinker AFB Affirmative Employment Program Supervisor, at the moment are engaged on replicating the digital map for his or her base. It will likely be accessible by the AF Portal web page and extra data might be housed on the Air Pressure Join app below DEIA Assets. A lactation room guidelines to remain compliant with AFI 36-3013 is being constructed for Hill, Rinker and Robins Air Pressure bases.
One other addition to the bases are lactation pods. Hill Air Pressure Base lactation pod is situated in constructing 430, and is accessible to all moms who want it with no time restrict. Tinker AFB is including one on the 552 Coaching Help Squadron, with the potential for one other one on the best way.
Moreover, entry to safe areas whereas carrying a Bluetooth-enabled breast pump is now out there to nursing Airmen. Wi-fi gadgets equivalent to these have grow to be extra common in recent times as a result of they will permit moms to pump with out a lot noise and whereas clothed.
A memo specifying that Bluetooth-enabled breast pumps certified as transportable digital gadgets and won’t be prohibited from Air Pressure Materiel Heart safe areas was issued by AFMC final yr, increasing entry to areas for Airmen to higher carry out their duties. These transportable, wearable gadgets do have some restrictions. They need to not have audio, video, photograph or Wi-Fi capabilities, and may have the Bluetooth options disabled after they enter safe areas. As soon as producer’s technical specs are submitted and accredited, Airmen will have the ability to enter these areas uninhibited by the pump.
The Maternity Uniform Pilot Program, or “Lease the Camo,” is a pilot program by the Division of the Air Pressure to supply free maternity uniform gadgets to pregnant Airmen and Guardians at 10 bases. Impressed by this program, the AFSC Range, Fairness, Inclusion and Accessibility Program reached out to Airman’s Attic and different assets on the three bases to supply data on uniform sharing and reselling. The hope is, stated Knight, that if the pilot undertaking takes off, AFSC bases might be able to implement it shortly.
Any unit curious about establishing lactation assist for nursing Airmen could attain out to the Affirmative Employment Program Managers on the respective bases.
