For lactating mothers, jury duty poses logistical challenges

The jury summons arrived when Leila Forouzan’s son was less than a year old. Unfazed, she inquired about accommodations for nursing mothers within Los Angeles County Superior Court and was happy to learn she would be given a room where she could breast-pump.

When the 32-year-old research analyst reported for duty, she was directed to the stall of the women’s restroom. She asked to be transferred to a courthouse that had a private lactation area but was denied. Later, the judge admonished her.

“She points to me and says, ‘And you, Mom, I know you had concerns but it’s very important to serve on a jury,’” Forouzan recalled. “It just struck me that she’s really not appreciating what the situation is. I’m the last person trying to get out of something, and I purposely didn’t postpone.”

Courthouses across the county are ill-equipped to meet the needs of breast-feeding mothers. L.A. Superior — which has 38 courthouses and relied on the service of 425,000 jurors over the last fiscal year — is devoid of designated lactation rooms. And although the court attempts to accommodate nursing jurors, there is no official policy in place, a court spokeswoman said.

It’s an issue that doesn’t surface often in the jury pool, because most breast-feeding women are inclined to take advantage of a state law that allows them to defer service for one year. Those who opt to show up soon find themselves at the mercy of individual judges, which can mean inconsistent and uncomfortable experiences.

Calabasas resident Ann Park was selected for a murder trial that lasted one month when her son was 5 months old. Already working full-time as a strategy director at a clinical supplies management company, she was accustomed to breast-pumping. At the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center she was offered the judge’s chambers or clerk’s office during lunch breaks.

“It was wonderful that they did that for me,” Park said. “They were really accommodating right away. Although it was kind of like they were just figuring it out.”

Still, Park said the judge allowed only 10-minute breaks the rest of the day, not enough time for additional pumping sessions. To avoid awkward explanations, she never requested longer intervals.

“I would have engorgement issues, leaking through pads and could barely raise my arm,” Park said. “Some days they just didn’t want to do a lunch break because they were going to let us out early. By the time I got home I would run to pump.”

A judge in another courtroom assured Amy Cantrell she would have plenty of time to pump when she was selected as an alternate in a criminal case. On summer break, the high school English teacher believed she could fulfill her civic duty.

But she too was allowed only short breaks. She also was told to utilize the bathroom. Instead, she pumped in her car during the lunchtime recess.

“I don’t prepare my food in the bathroom,” Cantrell said. “I don’t think my son’s food should be prepared in the bathroom.”

Breast-feeding advocates say the restroom exposes a baby’s milk to fecal matter, not to mention creates an impractical situation. Bathroom stalls offer little room, forcing women to sit on the toilet while holding their shields and bottles. Electric breast pumps tend to be sluggish and less efficient when used with a battery pack.

And a 10-minute break is simply not enough time to pump, said lactation consultant Wendy Haldeman, who co-founded the Pump Station and Nurtury, a breast-feeding resource center.

“I just can’t see that working,” she said. “The mother has to disrobe, she has to hook up the pump, she has to actually pump, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes, then she has to break it down, wash the equipment, get dressed again and go back. You’re looking at a minimum of 25 minutes.”

Haldeman also noted that maintaining milk production and avoiding engorgement means pumping about every three hours.

L.A. Superior’s situation is echoed in Orange County and Riverside — not to mention across the country. Under federal law, companies with 50 or more employees must provide a private space for breast-pumping and allow appropriate breaks for its staff. Jurors, however, are not considered employees of the court, a spokesman for the state labor commissioner’s office said.

That could be up to interpretation, said former California Assemblyman Dario Frommer, author of the state’s lactation accommodation bill, in effect since 2002.

“You could say they are performing a service and the court should provide them with some accommodations, particularly if the court is already providing that for their employees,” he said.

Los Angeles County public defender Jorgie Zimring was lucky to have an office adjacent to her trial courtroom when she returned to work and needed to provide milk for her 4-month-old daughter.

“I’d let the clerk know I’m breast-feeding and would need to pump every two hours. The clerk, on her own, would stop the trial, remind the judge I had to pump and give everybody a recess.”

Still, Zimring thinks jury coordinators need to be realistic and stop assuring breast-feeding jurors they will be able to serve.

“The court’s policy shouldn’t necessarily be accommodation,” she said. “They should be more upfront about what they have.”

Forouzan, who works for a nonprofit civil rights organization, ended up writing a letter to local officials as well as Presiding Judge David Wesley about her experience in hopes of raising awareness about the issue.

“I don’t want it to happen to somebody else,” she said. “Everyone agrees that breast-feeding is beneficial but that has to be applied to real-life situations.”

corina.knoll@latimes.com