Pregnant troopers based mostly within the U.S. might have simpler entry to maternity uniforms after a current growth of a program providing to lend out the clothes without spending a dime, in response to the Army.
The Maternity Uniform Pilot Program now permits troopers to coordinate instantly with program representatives to acquire the free uniforms and different Army maternity apparel corresponding to nursing T-shirts, as an alternative of relying solely on maternity-wear availability at base trade shops, the service stated in a current replace. Clothes are then returned after use.
The Army began the pilot program in 2022 at just a few bases after Congress handed the Hire the Camo: Entry to Maternity Put on Act in 2020, which requires the providers to make maternity uniforms extra broadly obtainable by guaranteeing that they get handed from one pregnant soldier to a different.
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Every department was directed to ascertain its personal program to reuse maternity uniforms, serving to to shut the availability chain hole that had beforehand left service girls with out entry to uniforms and paying the infamous “pink tax” on uniform objects distinctive to girls.
“This program goes to assist in giving [soldiers] the one-stop store they want,” Maj. Irma Richards, an Army logistics officer, stated in a launched assertion. “By streamlining the method to the place they solely have one individual to take care of … that eliminates the forwards and backwards a feminine soldier has going to a number of areas to acquire her uniforms.”
Girls within the U.S. who volunteer to take part within the pilot program do not obtain the standard stipend for maternity uniforms, for the reason that program gives them without spending a dime. For now, this system just isn’t obtainable to troops serving abroad.
In accordance with the replace, troopers will obtain 5 maternity T-shirts and three units of the operational camouflage sample maternity uniform. Army bodily health uniforms and nursing T-shirts are additionally obtainable, although in restricted portions.
Troopers can preserve the uniforms for as much as 15 months. After that, objects are recycled again into this system for the subsequent service member.
The Army’s program took off in late 2022 with simply three installations offering entry to it. Now, troopers all through the continental U.S. will have the ability to order and return maternity uniforms without spending a dime.
Simply over 200 troopers have used the recycled uniforms up to now, although an estimated 16,000 troopers turn out to be pregnant yearly.
The pilot program will run till 2025, or till not less than 1,200 girls take part, in response to the Army.
After that, a advice on whether or not this system ought to proceed will likely be made, in response to the legislation handed by Congress. That proposal will likely be based mostly on volunteers’ enter, in addition to a cost-savings evaluation of whether or not it is higher to keep up a stockpile of maternity garments or grant stipends to troops.
— Kelsey Baker is a graduate scholar at Northwestern’s Medill Faculty of Journalism, and a former active-duty Marine. Attain her on X at @KelsBBaker or bakerkelsey@protonmail.com.
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