Sarah Drew spoke about why it was important to her to have a breast pumping scene in “Grey’s Anatomy”

If you’re still watching Grey’s Anatomy (and you really should be, tbh), you may have noticed that in the show’s latest episode, Sarah Drew’s character, April, was using a breast pump during one of the scenes, and it seems that it was all her idea.

There are heaps of reasons why we believe that Grey’s Anatomy is one of the most relevant shows on TV. The long-running ABC medical drama shows no signs of slowing down (thank goodness), and was recently re-commissioned for it’s 14th (!) season. We’re not quite sure what we’d do without the likes of Meredith, Alex, Bailey, and Chief Webber (he’ll always be the chief in our eyes, tbh) in our lives every week.

Well, now Sarah Drew, who plays April Kepner on the show, has spoken about why she wanted to include a scene with a breast pump in the show’s latest episode, and her reasons are pretty incredible.

Speaking to Glamour.com, Drew explained that she had actually asked the director of the episode, which focused on April and her estranged partner Jackson Avery, whether they could include a scene with April having just expressed milk.

“As a breastfeeding mother, I would be pumping if I was away from my baby. So that action, that cut, made it into the scene,” she explained.

"It’s something I really care about and is part of, for me, what it means to be a working mother," she continued. "You have to account for all of that stuff when you travel away from your child. I always really celebrate the moments where we get a window into that struggle or that journey."

Viewers will recall that April gave birth at the the end of Season 12 of Grey’s Anatomy to baby Harriet, who she shares with Jackson.

The director of the episode, Kevin McKidd (who also plays Dr. Owen Hunt) said that he felt it was important because “‘one of the big themes of our show is how do we make the best life with so many commitments when we’re all pulled in so many directions? In that moment, it really portrayed that well.” 

“It’s important to show that we’re all multitasking all the time, especially these doctors who are committed to their patients, but also their own lives going on, too,” he said. “It’s nice to let the audience know that we’re all going through it together.” 

Following the airing of the episode last Thursday (March 16th), metro.co.uk report that fans took to social media to praise the realistic depiction of a new mother.

#GreysAnatomy showing working mothers who have to make time to pump. 💗💗💗 #normalizebreastfeeding

— Nicole M. Pharr (@pharr_away) March 17, 2017

I don't think I've ever seen pump bottles in use on the tv 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 #TGIT #GreysAnatomy

— (M)iracle (A)lien (C)ookies (@slocalsun) March 17, 2017

“There were some people that tweeted about it and they were so grateful,” Drew said about the response to the scene. “They were like, ‘Yes!’ Even one of our wardrobe girls had a baby a year ago, and she said that was her favorite part of the whole episode. She was so grateful that it made it there on the screen. So, yeah, it was so cool.”

See! This is why we love Grey’s Anatomy. The show is constantly pushing to represent its viewers, and we love that.

Grey’s Anatomy continues Thursdays on ABC.