Nursing Mom Sues for Extra Exam Time

Kia Franklin

This is an interesting legal issue. I’m curious to know the gender composition of the test administration board that will not allow this new mother to take additional breaks to nurse her 4-month-old. The recent Harvard MD/PhD graduate needs to take this exam for her residency program. She has already been granted extra time for learning differences, and apparently other nursing mothers have done well with the regular time restrictions. But some doctors and others believe that the woman’s request for an additional sixty minute break on each day is reasonable, and that the 45 minute breaks are too rigid.

Excerpt below:

(AP) - NEW YORK-A new mother who wants extra breaks so she can pump milk during a nine-hour medical licensing exam has asked a judge to settle her dispute with the board that administers the test.

Sophie Currier, 33, requested additional break time during the test, saying that if she does not nurse her 4-month-old daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours, she risks medical complications.

The exam allows a total of just 45 minutes in breaks, and the National Board of Medical Examiners has refused to give Currier the extra time she says she needs.

“If we are variable in the time that’s allotted to trainees, we alter the performance of the examination,” board spokeswoman Dr. Ruth Hoppe said.

Currier has completed a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard University while having two babies in the last two years. Her goal is a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a career in medical research.

She has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes the test, which she plans to take on Sept. 15.

“The one requirement is to pass this exam,” she said Tuesday… [Read More]

The article makes the excellent point about the irony of this dispute. If anywhere, one would imagine that the medical field would have a heightened appreciation for and sensitivity to the health implications and importance of breast feeding. Nursing mothers are not a protected class against discrimination.

What do you think?

Posted at 3:21 PM, Sep 12, 2007 in Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

I think the judges ruling in this case was proper. This woman has ample other opportunities to take this test or to conform to the rules rather than trying to have the law changed to meet her "special" circumstance. And before everyone gets so worked up wringing their hands over this "poor mom not being allowed to feed her infant", ask yourself why does this woman think she is so special that the laws must change for her, rather than simply following the rules, whatever that entails? I say it is this prevalent attitude our society is developing that people are not being held accountable for their actions and problems are always someone else's fault, and the way to address that problem is with a lawsuit (for which you will find no shortage of lawyers to assist you... and get a chunk of change in the process). Please, spare our tax dollars and just take the test later, when you're not breastfeeding. This woman states that if she doesn't pump breast milk every two hours she will suffer medical consequences. If that is the case, then sitting through a 9 hour test is clearly not what she needs to be doing at this time. Once you make an exception you open the flood gates for all sorts of claims by people to get around the rules, and for what? For a woman who is apparently so self-centered and spoiled and has no qualms about trying to take great advantage of her recent childbirth to circumvent the rules - no, to change the rules - smacks of "me-ism" and is socially unhealthy.