New Haven Healthy Start Inspires Breastfeeding-Friendly Worksites in New Haven

The New Haven Breastfeeding Task Force, co-chaired by New Haven Healthy Start Director Natasha Ray, is continuing its citywide efforts to normalize breastfeeding. 

In recognition of Black Maternal Health Week, April 11 to April 17, members of the Task Force worked with community-based organizations and businesses so they could become recognized as breastfeeding-friendly worksites.

Two of the first to be recognized are Manufacturing and Community Technical Hub (MATCH) and The Arts Council of Greater New Haven. Both are designated by the Connecticut Breastfeeding Coalition as official Breastfeeding Friendly Worksites, which mean that employees have time, space and a formal policy that allows for using breast pumps while at work.

Arts Paper Editor Lucy Gellman recalls how supportive the Arts Council was in making pumping as seamless as possible. Winter Marshall, operations director at the Council, quickly helped designate a quiet space on site, ensuring Lucy had not only time but moral support.

The certification helped solidify this practice into policy.

"There was a year where I would call ahead to places where I had assignments to ask if there was a fridge where I could put my milk," says Gellman. "The only thing that made it possible was having a supportive workplace. It makes a huge difference."

MATCH was selected to receive family-friendly items to enhance their new breastfeeding-friendly space.

Training Coordinator Latisha Porcher first learned about the opportunity to protect the right to breastfeed at her worksite through her work as chair of the New Haven Healthy Start Consortium.

“It hits home,” says Porcher. “When I used to pump or breastfeed, I would have to go outside to my car or go in the bathroom.”

“This is a win for every single party involved in this,” says MATCH Executive Director David Feinberg.

“When you look at the mission of MATCH, at its core, it is the navigation of barriers that people may have when they’re trying to find dignified, sustainable employment. This is one thing that now, here, no longer needs to be navigated.”

“That's exactly what this campaign is about,” says Ray. It isn’t the willingness of any given workplace, she explains, but a question of public awareness around the importance of breast- and chestfeeding, as well as the state and federal laws that require workplace protections.

“The timing is serendipitous,” she says. “The theme for Black Maternal Health Week 2026 is ‘Rooted in Justice and Joy.’ For me, I think about creating this space and making it available as the justice part – and I think about the joy that it brings to me to help facilitate this for both of these community-based organizations.”