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Ballpark pitches nursing privacy | News, Sports, Jobs


Attendees at a Friday press conference at Peoples Natural Gas Field view the new lactation pod on the second level.
Mirror photo by William Kibler

Seven years ago, when her son was an infant, Megan Alwine had difficulties nursing him in the stands at Altoona Curve games, when her son became old enough to be distracted by all the noise and excitement.

Three years ago, when her daughter was an infant, the same thing happened, so Alwine asked team management for a private space — but a bathroom connected with the first aid station turned out to be unworkable, because of sanitary issues and lack of privacy.

So Blair County Breastfeeding Coalition co-founder Alwine reached out to Curve marketing head Mike Kessling, which led to placement this season of a Mamava brand lactation pod on the stadium’s second floor — a project highlighted Friday at a news conference at the ballpark.

Funded by a $24,000 grant from the UPMC Altoona Foundation and a $2,000 grant from the Blair County WIC program, the pod looks like an Airstream trailer, with two seats inside, electrical outlets for breast pumping, a door that is unlocked by users who download an app that provides a code unique for each time it’s used and a screened top for ventilation.

The pod not only insulates mothers and babies from the bustle of the stadium in sanitary conditions, but it provides mothers privacy — although Pennsylvania law guarantees that mothers can’t be prohibited from breastfeeding wherever they choose.

Blair County Breastfeeding Coalition co-founders Samantha Radford (left) and Megan Alwine, with Alwine’s children Evalyn, 3; and Kermit, 7, check out the new lactation pod at Peoples Natural Gas Field.
Mirror photo by William Kibler

The pod might have cost about $7,000, but the Curve required it to be compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act, which greatly increased the price, Alwine said.

Getting the pod covered with decorative material and creating a donor plaque added further costs, officials said.

The manufactured pod was not the Curve’s first choice for a breastfeeding station, but there was no room available in the stadium that wasn’t already being used, Alwine said.

Breastfeeding is a foundation of public health, according to Samantha Radford, also a co-founder of the Breastfeeding Coalition.

It reduces lifelong risks of heart attack, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and several other diseases for both babies and their mothers, according to Ratchford, as cited in a news release from UPMC Altoona.

Additional benefits are being discovered as studies are conducted, Radford said.

The World Health Organization recommends that every mother who can breastfeed her children until the children reach the age of two, according to Alwine.

Projects like the Curve pod help normalize breastfeeding and make it easier, Alwine said.

The Curve have taken responsibility for cleaning and maintenance of the pod, officials said.

Young families are one of the marketing targets of the Curve, and nursing mothers among those families may be more willing to participate in ballpark outings now, Alwine said.

The coalition is willing to apply for grants to help in placing additional lactation stations in the community, according to Alwine.

Those stations don’t necessarily need to be purpose-manufactured like the pod at the ballpark, according to Alwine.

She encountered a breastfeeding station recently at a country fair that consisted of a specially outfitted shed, with air conditioning, a chair, a changing table, one-way windows that didn’t permit anyone to look inside and an external sink, she said.

“It’s actually a great option,” she stated.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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Ballpark pitches nursing privacy | News, Sports, Jobs

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