Two new nursing/lactation rooms have opened on campus, the University of Houston Commission on Women has announced.

Available to students, faculty and staff, each provides a quiet, private place for moms to nurse or express milk. The rooms have electrical outlets as well as easy access to running water and a restroom. In addition, both have refrigerators where milk may be stored. Moms who want to multitask can use computers or they can bring along a CD and listen to relaxing music.

The first location is in the Office of Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity, Student Services Building 2. Participants may park in the metered spaces in the back of the building. In order to reserve a time, please call Janice Horridge at 713-743-8835. This room is available from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The second location is at the Women’s Resource Center (WRC), in the University Center Satellite, Room 7. The closest parking lot is 16B. In order to reserve a time at the WRC, please call 713-743-5888. The hours are Mondays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursdays, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.; and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m.

The UH Child Care Center also has a nursing room for moms with babies enrolled at the center.

In its effort to make UH a more “family-friendly” campus, the commission looked at what other universities as well as corporations were doing to help mothers with newborn babies. Members also conducted research on Texas guidelines and gathered information from La Leche League, women’s clinics, local businesses and breast pump manufacturers.

The commission will recommend that other nursing/lactation rooms be set up around campus. If there is sufficient interest, at least one of the lactation rooms will eventually be equipped with a commercial-grade breast pump.

For more information, call Susan Rosthal or Maren Swope at the WRC, 713-743-5888.