First Apple and Facebook announced they would pay up to $20,000 towards the cost of their female employees freezing their eggs, now IBM in the US has come up with an innovative new policy aimed at retaining female employees.

The tech giant has announced it will provide a milk transportation service for breastfeeding women who are away from their babies due to work commitments.

Employees who wish to take advantage of the service will be able to pump while travelling; the milk will then be shipped in temperature-controlled packages and delivered home to their baby's carer.

IBM in the US will provide a milk transportation service for breastfeeding women who are away from their babies due to work commitments. Getty Images

IBM vice president of benefits Barbara Brickmeier says the aim of the initiative is to help the company's employees balance their home and work life.

"We are going to experiment with this and see how many women are interested," she told Fortune. "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."