Dr. Erickson,

I’m the founder and president of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute (we maintain the Babies in the Workplace website you referenced in your blog). I wanted to comment on one thing you mentioned–that we don’t talk about hard data on the website. You’re right–unfortunately, there have been very few formal studies of these programs, and so our analysis of the benefits (and parameters for success) is based on hundreds of interviews of people at baby-friendly organizations (and a few organizations in which this concept was not successful because it wasn’t set up properly). However, we are hoping to seek funding in the near future to start coordinating numerous formal studies (we have a number of academics who are eager to do research in this area) so that we have the data to ascertain the effects of these programs more conclusively (and to determine how to make the programs more effective).

Thanks for such a great blog on this topic!

Carla Moquin