IBM, the American multinational technology and consulting corporation, has come up with a new policy to provide milk transportation service for breastfeeding women who are away from their babies due to work commitments.

IBM vice president of benefits Barbara Brickmeier said in a statement that the new policy aims to help the company's employees to balance their home and work life.

Employees who will like to take advantage of the service will be able to pump while travelling. The milk will then be shipped in a temperature-controlled package and will be delivered home to their babies' carers.

Brickmeier said, "We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested. As long as it appeals to a segment of our population and they feel that they can better balance their work and home, we will continue it".

The United States has laws like Australia where the employers have to provide a private space and reasonable break times for breastfeeding women to express milk in the workplace.

The breast milk shipping policy has come at a time when the length of time US women exclusively breastfeed their babies falls well short of the recommended standard.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends women to breastfeed their babies for at least six months, but studies have shown that less than one third of US women exclusively breastfeed their babies for three months.

IBM's new policy is the latest attempt by Silicon Valley companies to boost and retain the number of female employees.