Olympic Athlete Complains About Obstacles To Breastfeeding At Tokyo Games

Spanish artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell simply wanted to bring her son to the Tokyo Olympics so that she could continue to breastfeed him.  Now, she’s speaking out because the onerous rules imposed by the Japanese government would make it too dangerous and impractical for her to breastfeed while at the Games. 

Carbonell posted an Instagram video this week describing her frustration with the obstacles faced by breastfeeding athletes at the Olympics. In the video, she described (in Spanish) the guidelines she’d have to follow to breastfeed her son Kai while at the Games. Kai, who is nearly a year old, would have to stay in a hotel, “and we wouldn’t know how far it is until we’re there.”  She added, “They wouldn’t be allowed to leave the hotel room during the 20ish days I’d be in Tokyo.” And she wasn’t only concerned about her son being cooped up in a hotel room for three weeks, but she also feared for her team’s health. “For me to go and breastfeed Kai whenever he needs it during the day, I would have to leave the Olympic Village, the team’s bubble… risking my team’s health,” she said.

“Personally, I can’t accept these conditions,” she said, adding that she will use a breast pump while at the Games. Many working moms will be able to relate to her struggle to balance breastfeeding with the demands of her job.

Breastfeeding offers a slew of health benefits to both women and children and has also been positively linked with improved child development, national productivity, and environmental sustainability. The World Health Organization produced guidelines to help encourage women to breastfeed for at least two years. 

In the United States, “federal law requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth each time such employee has a need to express the milk. Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk,” according to the Department of Labor.

Despite these regulations, many women face the same reality as Carbonell, feeling forced to choose between their career and breastfeeding. One study found that 20% of women who stopped breastfeeding cited their return to work or school as the reason.

Having regulations to support pumping at work is certainly important, but in reality, their implementation is far less than optimal. Breastfeeding employees report a lack of support from their employers including facing stigma associated with taking too many breaks and teasing from coworkers. The Washington Post reported one woman’s story from the Silicon Valley tech start-up where she worked, “The CEO of the company used to announce when I was going to pump by singing a little song for everyone to hear: ‘Pump, pump, pump it up!’”  The same woman also described an incident when she wasn’t permitted to leave a meeting to pump, and her milk began to leak through her shirt. She ultimately left the company.

Research on breastfeeding lends more evidence that negative attitudes are still a problem. In particular, people seem to get most upset about breastfeeding in public, extending breastfeeding past one year, and pumping breast milk at work.  The researchers found, “While some inroads have been made with employers, this study showed that public response was often critical of a woman who needed breaks to pump breastmilk during the workday.” They sadly conclude, “The experience of stigma may discourage lactating mothers from continuing to breastfeed for maximal health of mother and child.”

Carbonell says she will use a pump while in Tokyo and hopes Kai will still be interested in breastfeeding when she returns home. Her goal in raising this issue was to bring awareness to the problem. “I hope this video, and every other athlete who is struggling with the same problem, will help normalize this situation, which nowadays is not normal,” she says.

It’s ironic that breastfeeding, a behavior performed by all mammalian species must be normalized. Yet, Carbonell is correct. Removing the stigma surrounding breastfeeding is the only way forward if we want women to be able to breastfeed and pursue a career. With the world watching, the Olympic Games would be a perfect opportunity to normalize this common behavior. One can only imagine the accommodations that would exist in Tokyo if male athletes were the breastfeeders.