The Capitol building in Washington. (Reuters)

Washington, Dec. 16 (AP): In the basement of the Capitol, behind a heavy frosted glass door secured by an electronic combination lock, is a 12- by 10-foot room where many of Congress’s new mothers go to take care of business.

Not the business of writing legislation or hashing out political deals — although all of that and more goes on behind this particular closed door.

No, the main activity here is feeding babies. Some affectionately call it the “boob cube”. It’s officially known as a “lactation suite”.

Whatever the name, it’s one of several refuges around the Capitol complex designed to give working mothers of infants a private and sanitary place to feed or pump breast milk for their babies.

Two floors down from the historic chambers where lawmakers cast votes in the House and Senate, just around a labyrinthine corridor from a secure room where members plot strategy, the lactation room is part lounge, part office-away-from-the-office for scores of women trying to balance their babies’ nutritional needs with the demands of a fast-paced Capitol Hill job.

The room is equipped with two hospital-grade pumps, a mini-refrigerator for storage, hand sanitiser and sterile wipes, comfortable chairs and all the necessities of a congressional office: multiline phones, a TV often tuned to C-Span, and power outlets for laptops.

C-Span is an American cable TV network owned and operated by the cable industry. It airs non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming.

Conference calls are taken over the mechanical whirring of pumps. Legislation is read and marked for questions or revisions amid bottle changes. Interviews are conducted and emails written and answered between swipes of sanitising wipes.

Before the boob cube, countless women lugged heavy pumps and extension cords to their jobs on Capitol Hill, then shut themselves in any bathroom stall they could find near an outlet to pump breast milk they could bring home to their children. In a workplace where only the most senior aides have their own offices, disappearing behind a locked door simply was not an option for most.

That was before the debut of the Capitol room and others like it, furnished with high-functioning pumps. The only things women need to bring are tubes and bottles.

Congress’s Office of the Attending Physician opened the first lactation room in 2006, converting a suite in the basement of a Senate office building accessible only with a card key, so women could have a secure place to pump 24 hours a day. In addition to pumps, leather chairs and a sofa, TVs and a desk, the room has a refrigerator and two sinks.

The trend spread, and not long after, newly installed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to hold the post, pushed successfully for a similar — though smaller — room in the basement of the Capitol itself.