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Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam TimeFrom: Dean Huffman . (dean@thehuffpeople.net)Mon Sep 10 15:48:40 2007
.. Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam Time By ELIZABETH OLSON [New York Times] One test stands between Sophie Currier and her Harvard medical degree and a prestigious residency. But Ms. Currier says she runs a high risk of failing the test unless the National Board of Medical Examiners gives her additional break time to pump breast milk for her 4-month-old daughter. The board has refused the request, and on Thursday, Ms. Currier asked a Massachusetts Superior Court judge to order it to give her extra time on each of two days of testing, plus a private room with a power outlet so she can express her milk in private with an electric pump. (The nine-hour exam, on clinical knowledge, allows 45 minutes for breaks.) The case, to be heard on Wednesday, is a harbinger of what could be a growing problem. More women than ever are studying medicine, and they must take three exams to become doctors. At the same time, groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly encourage breast-feeding for its health and developmental benefits. Ms. Currier, 33, of Brookline, Mass., wrote to the medical examiners’ board in June to request the extra time, saying she needed to pump milk to avoid painful breast engorgement and mastitis, an infection stemming from blocked milk ducts. In a letter dated July 11, Catherine Farmer, the board’s manager of disability services, responded that it could accommodate only conditions covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act. She added that Ms. Currier could spend some of her break time pumping breast milk in another testing room. Testing rooms are monitored and have glass walls. Ms. Farmer said on Friday that the board’s privacy policy prohibited it from commenting on individual cases. Ms. Currier, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Harvard, has received some accommodation from the board for dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She can take the nine-hour test over two days instead of one, but she is seeking an additional 60-minute break on each day. Dr. Alison Stuebe, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, supported Ms. Currier’s request in an affidavit filed with the court. “Forty-five minutes,” Dr. Stuebe wrote, “is insufficient time for a nursing mother of a 4-month-old to eat, drink, use the restroom and to fully and properly express breast milk using an electric pump two times over the course of eight hours.” If Ms. Currier is forced to delay taking the exam, “it will cause her significant hardship” by delaying her ability to earn a living and to begin repaying school loans, and possibly leading to the loss of clinical knowledge and skills, Dr. Stuebe said. Ms. Currier said she was already feeling pressure because she took the test in April, when she was eight months’ pregnant, and failed it by a few points. She has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes this test, which she plans to take on Sept. 15. “This should be as simple as ducking into the bathroom to pump the milk,” said Ms. Currier, who is feeding her daughter breast milk exclusively. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10breast.html?ref=health
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