Abbey Donnell, founder and CEO of Work & Mother, shares how the pandemic's return-to-work policies are affecting new moms. Courtesy of Work & Mother

Consensus seems to indicate that working from home has proven more effective than previously believed, though most would also agree that there is still a need for an office outside the home.

By now, I've received about a million different emails with guides on how to reopen businesses safely amidst COVID-19: how to protect employees, social distancing in the workplace, the future of office space and the effects on commercial real estate…the list goes on and on.

The majority of these guidelines include some version of:

Employers should discontinue use of common spaces such as lunchrooms, breakrooms, meeting rooms and other gathering spaces to avoid unnecessary person-to-person exposure.

This is surely wise. After all, the place with the most germs in the office is usually the faucet of the break room sink.

However, what these recommendations have all failed to consider, what not a single one has even mentioned, is the mother's room.

The majority of mother's rooms, unfortunately, double as some sort of communal wellness or other multi-purpose room. This should not be the case even during non-pandemic times, for a variety of reasons, which you can read about here. But now with COVID-19, for obvious reasons they should not be one and the same. There is a real issue at hand — one with long lasting repercussions for not only working mothers, but their employers too.

The majority of in-office mother's rooms do not have a sink. Therefore, women are forced to carry their used pump parts to the break room or bathroom sink, exposing themselves not only to scrutiny and often even harassment, but also to germs. So, what happens if this common area break room, this already subpar solution, is closed? What do mothers do then?

What about the cleaning and sanitizing of the room? What about room usagee schedules to ensure proper distancing and cleaning between each use? What about including not only hand sanitizer and surface disinfectant wipes, but also the proper pump part cleaning and sanitizing supplies?

What if the mother's room itself is closed, as that too is considered a "communal space?" (Though let us not forget that there are federal and state requirements for the majority of employers to provide a mother's room.)

Fortunately, many offices are implementing more flexible work policies, allowing many to work from home. But, I worry that this "option" will end up becoming a forced "solution" for working mothers. Oh, you're pumping? Just stay home.

On the one hand, great! If you're lucky enough to have in-home childcare, you will actually be able to take breaks and breastfeed your baby. Win! Even if your little one is in daycare, you can at least pump in the privacy of your own home. Win!

However, here's the problem: This approach may actually hurt women's careers and exacerbate the already brutal motherhood penalty. When an employee works completely remotely, particularly if their job isn't intended to be fully remote, or the rest of their team isn't remote, there are serious side effects:

Passed up for promotions and projects
Sometimes this occurs intentionally: "Oh, she shouldn't work on this because it requires in-office time so we'll assign it to someone else." Sometimes it's unintional — simply, out of sight out of mind. If some members of the team are in the office and others aren't, those who are not there often miss casual conversations or spur of the moment brainstorming sessions that leave them behind and in the dark.

Cessation of learning
When cut off from the rest of the team, it's hard to be exposed to learning opportunities. As soon as the learning and growing stops, the dissatisfaction, restlessness, and turnover begins.

Loss of fidelity
Without contact with the rest of the team or organization, we often lose the connection to our cause. We could be working for anyone. Loyalty suffers when there isn't a meaningful connection.

Loss of leadership
Most experts agree that 70 to 93 percent of all communication is nonverbal. Leadership and culture is often most effectively conveyed via modeling behavior. How do you grow your next generation of leaders if they can't see leadership behavior for themselves?

The turnover rate for new mothers is already high — 43 percent — despite the fact that over 75 percent of women want to remain in the workforce to remain in the workforce after becoming mothers, according to an April 2013 article in The Atlantic. This should signal to all employers that they are failing at providing the proper facilities and support for new mothers returning to work. So, what happens when we close the already lacking mother's resources?

This isn't just a women's issue. It's a business issue. Replacing an experienced employee who leaves after childbirth can cost anywhere from 20 to 213 percent of the employee's annual salary. Companies with at least 30 percent management positions held by women tend to be 15 percent more profitable than those without.

Companies such as Goldman Sachs have taken note. They now require at least one woman on the boards of their companies before they can go public. Therefore, employers need to ensure that they can keep top female talent beyond childbearing years. It's worth nothing that according to the CDC, birthrates in the US are declining for all age brackets with the exception of slight gains for women in their 30s and 40s. Meaning, women are waiting longer, until they're more established in their careers, to begin having children. Translation to employers: a more valuable employee you're at risk to lose.

Now, let me be clear about something: I am NOT advocating for a full return to the office for strict, structured working hours. Nor am I saying that women need to run right back to the office right after delivery. Quite the contrary. In fact, I am a firm believer in better parental leave policies and general workplace flexibility with the option of working remotely.

I believe flexibility is actually the very key to leveling the playing field for working mothers. However, to assume that the mother's room is no longer necessary because moms can just stay home, is discrimination, plain and simple. It's the same assumption that's been setting women back for years. "Oh, she probably wants to have kids soon, so she won't want this promotion that will require travel." Or, "oh she's probably just going to get pregnant and quit so I'm not going to hire her."

If a mom chooses to work from home but needs to come in for a meeting, for example, there still needs to be a safe, appropriate facility for her. At a minimum, organizations must create a protocol for this. It is not the mother's job to advocate for this. It is the employer's responsibility to proactively provide for it. This should be an active conversation with landlords.

If mother's needs are not part of this vital return to work safety conversation, women may be left behind. So let's start the conversation.

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Abbey Donnell is a lactation counselor and the founder and CEO of Work & Mother.

A Houston mom is working hard on her startup so that next summer, breastfeeding moms can swim in style and worry free. Courtesy of Orolait

New mom-designed swimwear line makes a splash in Houston

mommy made

Houston mom Ana Carolina Rojas Bastidas feels there's been an oversight in the fashion industry when it comes to women who are in the breastfeeding stage of motherhood. With her new swimwear line, she hopes to spark a movement for women's fashion.

Bastidas, founder and CEO of Orolait, launched the swimwear line in September 2018 specifically for breastfeeding individuals. Orolait, which floats the tagline "by a mama for mamas," aims to give breastfeeding individuals back the dignity they deserve with bathing suit options.

"I decided to build this company to challenge and change the way we depict one's breastfeeding journey," Bastidas says on the website. "I stand on the pillars of advocacy, education, and inclusion. You will see the sizing and advertising featuring all shapes, sizes, and shades because each of us is so different and that is what makes us so incredible and I am going to unapologetically celebrate that in the most ethical way I know how."

Bastidas, originally from Bogota, Colombia, has been blogging about postpartum body positivity on her platform PowerToPrevail since 2015, sharing her personal journey with her children.

"I was spending a lot of time by the pool and water parks with my two older children," her website states. "I had a big fear of public breastfeeding, but I had a life to live and memories to make with my kids."

Orolait currently offers four different types of bathing suits, each designed to make breastfeeding easier. The suits range from $36 per piece to $72 for a full suit. The suits are designed manufactured by MIYH Design Services, a local business owned by adjunct Art Institute of Houston professor David Dang.

Bastidas tells InnovationMap that she noticed the need for specifically designed suits after experiencing discomfort herself, explaining that traditional suits were not accommodating for swollen milk ducts with the cut and wiring. Bastidas surveyed mothers across all walks of life to see what they struggled with when finding a bathing suit and found that the list was endless. She tells InnovationMap that they got 100 responses in three days.

Her survey found that moms worried about body image, functionality, confidence, feeling fashionable, and comfort, all when looking for a bikini. It became clear to Bastidas that the current market was not working for moms and causing even more stress.

"Our goal is not to be modest," says Bastidas. "I don't believe in modesty when it comes to breastfeeding, but I do believe that people are at different levels and we need to meet them where they are at."

This past November, Orolait launched their first-ever equity crowdfunding campaign through LetsLaunch, a platform based out of Houston, with a goal of raising $250,000. The company reached 10 percent of its goal within its first few days of going life.

"Our goal is to help women who decide that breastfeeding is a journey that they would like to take, to be able to take that journey," says Bastidas. "There are so many obstacles that are already in our way biologically, that to have a lack of product be the reason why you become so discouraged is unacceptable."

Bastidas tells InnovationMap that her goal for the company is to eventually expand offerings in addition to bathing suits and move into brick and mortar retail spaces. She hopes that Orolait will be a representation of all varieties of breastfeeding journeys.

"We want to make sure we represent those moms who are never represented," says Bastidas.

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Houston university to launch artificial intelligence major, one of first in nation

BS in AI

Rice University announced this month that it plans to introduce a Bachelor of Science in AI in the fall 2025 semester.

The new degree program will be part of the university's department of computer science in the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing and is one of only a few like it in the country. It aims to focus on "responsible and interdisciplinary approaches to AI," according to a news release from the university.

“We are in a moment of rapid transformation driven by AI, and Rice is committed to preparing students not just to participate in that future but to shape it responsibly,” Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said in the release. “This new major builds on our strengths in computing and education and is a vital part of our broader vision to lead in ethical AI and deliver real-world solutions across health, sustainability and resilient communities.”

John Greiner, an assistant teaching professor of computer science in Rice's online Master of Computer Science program, will serve as the new program's director. Vicente Ordóñez-Román, an associate professor of computer science, was also instrumental in developing and approving the new major.

Until now, Rice students could study AI through elective courses and an advanced degree. The new bachelor's degree program opens up deeper learning opportunities to undergrads by blending traditional engineering and math requirements with other courses on ethics and philosophy as they relate to AI.

“With the major, we’re really setting out a curriculum that makes sense as a whole,” Greiner said in the release. “We are not simply taking a collection of courses that have been created already and putting a new wrapper around them. We’re actually creating a brand new curriculum. Most of the required courses are brand new courses designed for this major.”

Students in the program will also benefit from resources through Rice’s growing AI ecosystem, like the Ken Kennedy Institute, which focuses on AI solutions and ethical AI. The university also opened its new AI-focused "innovation factory," Rice Nexus, earlier this year.

“We have been building expertise in artificial intelligence,” Ordóñez-Román added in the release. “There are people working here on natural language processing, information retrieval systems for machine learning, more theoretical machine learning, quantum machine learning. We have a lot of expertise in these areas, and I think we’re trying to leverage that strength we’re building.”

Houston biomanufacturing accelerator adds pilot plant to support scale-ups

new digs

Houston accelerator BioWell announced this month that it has taken over operations of Texas BioTechnology’s pilot plant in Richmond, Texas.

The 33,000-square-foot facility is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. and features molecular biology labs, advanced automation, fermentation equipment and 16 dedicated benches for early-stage industrial biomanufacturing companies, according to a release from the company. It will allow BioWell to offer on-site education, workforce development, and lab training for students and workers.

BioWell and its founding company, First Bight Ventures, report that the facility should help address the industry's "scale-up bottleneck due to limited pilot- and demonstration-scale infrastructure" in the U.S.

"As a Houston-based accelerator dedicated exclusively to early-stage biomanufacturing startups, partnering with this facility was a natural and highly strategic decision for us. The site is fully operational and offers a strong platform to support biomanufacturing companies, industry leaders, and research institutions, providing critical expertise and infrastructure across a broad range of biotechnology production processes,” Veronica Breckenridge, founder of First Bight Ventures and BioWell, said in a news release.

First Bight Ventures shares that the partnership with the facility will also allow it to better support its portfolio companies and make them more attractive to future investors.

BioWell will host an open house and tours of the fermentation and lab spaces and an overview of current bioindustrial projects Wednesday, May 28, at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. RSVPs are required.

BioWell was originally funded by a $700,000 U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale grant and launched as a virtual accelerator for bioindustrial startups. Listen to an interview with Carlos Estrada, head of venture acceleration at BioWell, here.

Ultra-fast EV charging bays coming to Waffle House locations in Texas and beyond

power breakfast

Scattered, smothered and ... charged?

Starting next year, EV drivers can connect to ultra-fast charging stations at select Waffle House locations throughout Texas, courtesy of bp pulse.

The EV arm of British energy giant bp announced a strategic partnership with the all-day breakfast chain this week. The company aims to deploy a network of 400kW DC fast chargers and a mix of CCS and NACS connectors at Waffle House locations in Texas, Georgia, Florida, and other restaurants in the South.

Each Waffle House site will feature six ultra-fast EV charging bays, allowing drivers to "(enjoy) Waffle House’s 24/7 amenities," the announcement reads.

“Adding an iconic landmark like Waffle House to our growing portfolio of EV charging sites is such an exciting opportunity. As an integrated energy company, bp is committed to providing efficient solutions like ultra-fast charging to support our customers’ mobility needs," Sujay Sharma, CEO of bp pulse U.S., said in a news release. "We’re building a robust network of ultra-fast chargers across the country, and this is another example of third-party collaborations enabling access to charging co-located with convenient amenities for EV drivers.”

The news comes as bp pulse continues to grow its charging network in Texas.

The company debuted its new high-speed electric vehicle charging site, known as the Gigahub, at the bp America headquarters in Houston last year. In partnership with Hertz Electrifies Houston, it also previously announced plans to install a new EV fast-charging hub at Hobby Airport. In a recent partnership with Simon Malls, bp also shared plans to install EV charging Gigahubs at The Galleria and Katy Mills Mall.

bp has previously reported that it plans to invest $1 billion in EV charging infrastructure by 2030, with $500 million invested by the end of 2025.

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A version of this article originally appeared on EnergyCapitalHTX.com.