Barring appellate relief, a Harvard medical student will have to take a nine-hour licensing exam without the extra break time she says she needs to pump breast milk for her 4-month-old daughter.

A Massachusetts judge ruled last week that the refusal of the National Board of Medical Examiners to accommodate Sophie Currier's nursing requirements with an additional hour of break time does not violate her “alleged constitutional right to breast-feed.” Currier, 33, claims the usual 45 minutes of rest during the exam is not enough to “express” her milk.

“Even assuming the constitutional right which the plaintiff is asserting, it is unlikely that she will prevail on the argument that the conditions under which she is required to take the test unfairly burdens her right,” Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick F. Brady said in his order denying her a preliminary injunction.

Nursing mothers who do not express their milk at least once every three hours can suffer painful breast engorgement or mastitis, an infection caused by blocked milk ducts. But Brady noted that the board has offered, among other things, to provide Currier with a private room equipped with a power outlet so she can express her milk in private with a breast pump.

“The plaintiff may take the test and pass, notwithstanding what she considers to be unfavorable conditions,” he said, going on to suggest she could delay taking the test “until she has finished her breast-feeding and the need to express milk.”

Currier had been planning to sit the exam this week. But she has put things on hold temporarily to await the outcome of her appeal, which Massachusetts Court of Appeals Justice Gary S. Katzmann is scheduled to hear Sept. 25.

“Basically, the judge [Brady] decided it's OK to tell women to wait until they are done being moms to become professionals, which as far as I'm concerned is not acceptable in this day and age,” Currier's attorney told the Boston Globe.

By Matthew Heller
9/23/07