How Music Venues Support Moms With Mamava Lactation Pods  

In preparing to welcome fans to Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field earlier this month for the UConn football Homecoming game, the East Hartford, Connecticut, venue announced a new guest amenity with the introduction of a Mamava lactation pod for nursing mothers. 

As a poster on Facebook explained, “Looking for a comfortable, private space to pump or nurse on game day at The Rent? Head to our new Mamava nursing pod located at Gate B by Guest Services.” 

Ben Weiss, General Manager of PeoplesBank Arena, Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field, and Hartford Wolf Pack explained, “We heard directly from fans and guests that having a comfortable, private space for nursing or pumping would make their experience at Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field even better. When those requests began to come in, it was an easy decision for us to move forward. Partnering with Mamava allows us to support parents and ensure everyone feels welcome here. Since installing the pod, we’ve already received wonderful feedback from guests who appreciate having that option.”

The Oak View Group (parent company to Pollstar) facility is just one of the latest venues to install the moveable nursing pods. Mamava pods are in more than 100 venues across the country including stadiums, arenas, convention centers and theaters, as well as museums, zoos, aquariums and libraries. Live music venues featuring the pods include Chase Center in San Francisco; SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California; Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle; Ball Arena in Denver; Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska; Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. 

Mamava was launched by co-founders Sascha Mayer and Christine Dodson to address the lack of lactation spaces in workplaces and public spaces, with the first lactation pod installed in 2013 at Vermont’s Burlington International Airport. 

“We had experienced the indignity of pumping in bathrooms and closets, and believed design can—and should—solve real world problems,” Mayer told Pollstar. “Mamava was born from our own experience, but we spoke with many mothers who shared the same challenges, and designed a clean, private, comfortable place to pump or nurse based on their input. It’s astonishing that so little thought had been put into this fundamental human experience that literally sustains life.”

Rachel Kaulius, who serves as the Government and Public Venue Sales representative at Mamava, notes that the pods are mobile and can be moved around venues, with the inside of the pods made out of nonporous materials. The pods are designed, engineered, and assembled at Mamava’s production facility in Springfield, Vermont. The pods are available in multiple sizes, with larger venues like stadiums opting for the XL version that is ADA accessible / wheelchair compatible – and can also be custom branded with the venue selling the advertising space on the pod.

“They’re very intentionally designed to be as easy as possible for venues [and] businesses to implement and upkeep. They just plug right into a standard 120-volt, three-prong outlet,” Kaulius says.

Patrons can use Mamava’s free app to locate and reserve a pod and once inside, lights and fans turn on automatically. Users will then lock the deadbolt in the pod and the app will reflect that it’s occupied. Kaulius points out that the ability to reserve the pod oneself is helpful from a fans and venue perspective because in contrast, if a venue has a lactation room, fans may have to first go to guest services to get a key and have the employee walk them to the room.

More public buildings have been adding lactation rooms or Mamava pods since the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) Act went into effect in April 2023, closing loopholes in the original 2010 law that stimulated that U.S. employers provide reasonable break time and a private, non-bathroom space for lactating employees to pump milk during the workday.

But there is still more work to be done. Mamava teamed up with breastfeeding support company Medela for its 2025 State of Breastfeeding Survey, which surveyed almost 3,000 breastfeeding parents in May of 2025 and found that “more than half (55%) of survey respondents don’t feel supported in public places like stadiums, zoos, stores, etc.” Another stat of note – two out of three “respondents are more likely to visit a public place with a lactation space – which suggests that supporting parents is mutually beneficial for both families and public places.”

When venues don’t provide lactation spaces, they are essentially leaving money on the table by not creating a welcoming space for breastfeeding mothers, who may decide to skip out on buying tickets to a show.

Kaulius, who is a mother of two daughters ages 4 and 6, reflects that when she was breastfeeding, she especially experienced the need for a lactation space when she didn’t have her kid with her but still needed to pump.  

“Like I wanted to go to a show and I didn’t want to bring my kid. I’m with my kid all the time. …  It was the one time in two months that I got to go out and let loose and wanted to spend some money, treat myself. … Just the way that your body works when you’re nursing is you have to [nurse or pump every] two to four hours. So if the venue that I was attending didn’t have a clean, private, secure space for me to do that, then I couldn’t go, man. And that’s a total bummer,” Kaulius says.

“I think so many times when people see pods, they think babies and not moms. I want them to think moms. … [It’s about] repositioning this amenity not as a baby amenity but as a paying customer [amenity].”

She added that if a venue is going to support breastfeeding moms, then she’s “going to buy two more cocktails.  I can stay here because I can pump. So, I got another two hours on me, you know?”