New Coast Guard Expense: Breast Milk Shipping

The Coast Guard is following through on a promise to introduce changes aimed at keeping women in the service. Service members on duty or other official business who send breast milk back home will be reimbursed for shipping costs of up to $750 per household per year under a program announced this week, per CNN. Personnel away from home for a minimum of 72 hours—including Public Health Service officers and US Navy chaplains assigned to the Coast Guard—can apply for the reimbursement, reports Military.com. The outlet notes 15% of Coast Guard members are women, "but they tend to leave at rates higher than men after about five years—usually during the time when they start having families." (More Coast Guard stories.)