Breast-feeding Mom's War Over Pumping

June 29, 2007 — -- Sophie Currier of Brookline, Mass., is one of those talented, overachieving women we all love to hate. She spent eight years at Harvard working on a combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree, receiving exemplary grades even though she struggles with dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Oh, and during that time, she also had two children. The youngest, Lea, is just 8 weeks old.

But before Currier launches her medical career, she must pass a daylong exam run by the National Board of Medical Examiners. And that's proving to be a bit of a problem for this nursing mother.

Currier breast-feeds her daughter every few hours -- around the clock. And if she can't be with her daughter, Currier uses a breast pump to keep up her milk supply. But the nine-hour exam includes only a total of 45 minutes break time throughout the day. So Currier requested some extra time to accommodate her nursing needs. The board said no.

Medical experts agree that if a nursing mother doesn't express her milk -- even for a day -- her supply could begin to dry up, her breasts will engorge and she could develop a painful infection called mastitis.

"I think it's infuriating and amazing and I'm appalled," said Currier. "All the literature says there are health benefits to nursing. I'm just asking for a little extra break time so I can pump my milk. The thing is, if I had a broken arm they would make accommodations for me, but not for breast-feeding. It's ridiculous."

Catherine Farmer, of the National Board of Medical Examiners, responded in a faxed statement: "We do provide a wide variety of accommodations to test-takers with documented disabilities under the Americans With Disabilities Act."

But maintaining a milk supply for a hungry baby isn't a disability under the ADA.

Currier said the NBME hasn't responded to her repeated requests to discuss the issue. But the board did tell her it's had very few -- if any -- requests to accommodate nursing mothers, despite administering the exam more than 125,000 times in 2006.