IBM to launch service to ship breast milk for kids of working mothers

US tech giant IBM is set to launch a service that would allow working mothers to ship breast milk in temperature-controlled packages to their babies while travelling for work.

The company will offer the unique service in a bid to attract and retain female employees, while alleviating a number of problems associated with breastfeeding babies at work, Fortune reported.

The company was not sure how many women would actually take advantage of the service, Fortune said, adding that it would keep the programme alive even if only a handful of women found it valuable.

"We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested," Barbara Brickmeier, vice president of benefits at IBM, was quoted as saying.

"As long as it appeals to a segment of our population and they feel that they can better balance their work and home, we will continue it."

At IBM, which has a female CEO, Ginni Rometty, women comprise about 29 per cent of the total work force, as against 30 per cent at Apple and 31 per cent at Facebook.

While the details of the service are yet to be revealed, the company planned to create an app to go along with the shipping service. This would allow employees to specify which hotel they were staying in so that temperature-controlled packaging for their milk would be ready when they arrived, according to spokesperson Laurie Friedman.

IBM was not the only company that would pay for the cost of shipping breast milk back to an employee's baby, Jennifer Owens, editorial director for Working Mother Magazine, told The Washington Post.

Twenty four of the 100 companies on her publication's list ranking the best places for working moms, offered to recoup the cost for mothers while on business travel.

Ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, which did not figure in Working Mother's list, paid for breastfeeding mothers to bring along a travel companion, such as a spouse or nanny who could look after the baby, when trips exceed four days.

However, in these programmes, according to Owens, employees typically had to organise the shipping themselves, and then get reimbursed when they filled out their expense report.

IBM covered the cost upfront, and appears to be distinctive for the convenience it offered. "It's almost like a concierged way of doing it," said Owens, told the post.

"To think beyond just allowing the expense, but to make it easy and seamless to be done - that's really commendable."