Today the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) celebrated the grand opening of the highly anticipated Mother’s Room. Located on Concourse A, the Mother’s Room offers traveling moms a private lactation space, complete with changing areas to care for their children.
“We are thrilled to open the Mother’s Room at Louisville Muhammad Ali International,” said Darrell Watson, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation for the Louisville Regional Airport Authority. “This is something our travelers said they wanted and we listened. The customer experience at our airport is essential, and it’s wonderful that we can now provide a calm, quiet, soothing space for nursing mothers when traveling.”
To help ensure the needs of mothers and those with children were met, airport officials worked with various local mothers groups, including MothersEsquire, to provide feedback throughout the project.
“I applaud the Airport Authority for sending a loud and clear message today of support for women and families by providing this warm, comfortable and welcoming Mother’s Room at the Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, which keeps with our mentality to be a Compassionate City,” said Michelle Browning Coughlin, founder of MothersEsquire and partner at Wyatt Tarrant & Combs law firm. “As the founder of MothersEsquire, a national group of female attorneys who are also moms, I hear the daily stories of the need for better accommodations for moms in all public spaces, including airports and courthouses. So often, breastfeeding lawyers traveling for work are negatively impacted by a lack of accommodations, which I’m proud to say will no longer be the case at Louisville’s airport. While these kinds of systemic barriers to a woman’s career success are often due to an unintentional oversight, women represent a significant percentage of the purchasing decisions in this country, and organizations that take the time to address the needs of women will see improvements to customer satisfaction and their bottom lines. The new Mother’s Room will not only address these needs, but also greatly improves the experience for a traveling mom at our airport.”
Located on Concourse A, the Mother’s Room consists of a large common area with three private, individual suites with their own locking door. Each individual suite was designed with privacy and comfort in mind by including dimming lights, a comfortable glider, changing station and plenty of electrical outlets with USB ports. There is also one semi-private suite that mirrors the amenities of the three individual spaces. The common area includes ample counter space complete with a sink, microwave, additional changing station and a flight display so moms can easily track the status of their flight when in the Mother’s Room. Designed with the traveling mom in mind, the Mother’s Room is open and available to anyone who needs to care for a child.
The Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport is served by six airlines offering flights to more than 30 nonstop destinations including 19 of the region’s top 20 domestic markets. With just one stop, travelers from across the region can reach more than 460 destinations in the U.S. and worldwide.
