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New perk: Twitter is offering working moms free breast milk shipping

Twitter is now offering its employees free breast milk deliveries when they travel on business trips.
/ Source: TODAY

Twitter is now offering its working mothers free shipping of breast milk when they travel on business trips.

The new perk launched in July, according to Fortune magazine, who first reported the story. It allows mothers who breastfeed to ship their milk home in temperature-controlled packaging via FedEx at no cost to them.

The idea for breast milk delivery came from Twitter's "Mommy Mentor" program, which aims to make the transition back to work easier for new moms and pregnant employees with the help of peer mentorship.

"One of the Mommy Mentors who was traveling for work said this would be an awesome program and we ran with it," Janet Van Huysse, Twitter’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, told NBC News via email.

The program is meant to prevent the hassle of storing and carrying breast milk on business trips, or wasting it before women are able to get back home. It's similar to programs launched by IBM and Accenture earlier this summer.

Last year, Apple and Facebook made headlines by offering to cover the cost of freezing female employees' eggs, a procedure that can cost $10,000.

Fortune reported that nine women signed up for Twitter's program when it was unveiled at a company global sales conference in July. Van Huysse said she isn't sure how many have taken advantage of it since.

"It's too early to tell," she told NBC News. "However, the goal behind launching this program wasn't about scope or reach — it's about positive impact for the employees that can and will participate in it."

Related: Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, Says She's Expecting Identical Twin Girls

In a diversity report released last week, Twitter said that "increasing the overall representation of women" in the company was a priority. The report showed only 34 percent of Twitter's employees are women and that number drops to 13 percent in tech positions and 22 percent in leadership positions.