| It is now generally recognized that breastfeeding should be encouraged and that babies who are breastfed receive numerous health and other benefits. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, recommends that women breastfeed their babies exclusively through the age of six months. Consequently, state legislatures have responded by passing laws to promote the public policy interests advanced by breastfeeding. Many states, for example, now have laws specifically stating that breastfeeding in public is not lewd behavior and that women have the right to breastfeed their children nearly any place they have a right to be.
One of the challenges facing nursing mothers is how to continue nursing while returning to work. A number of employers have responded by creating nursing-friendly policies for such mothers. In addition, the following states have passed legislation protecting, at least to some extent, nursing mothers who return to work:
- California
- Connecticut
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- Texas
- Washington
In addition, Wyoming and Virginia have resolutions that promote the rights of working mothers who wish to continue breastfeeding their babies.
Most of these laws require employers to provide reasonable break times to nursing mothers and a private place for them to express breast milk for their babies. Most of them specifically provide that a toilet stall is not an acceptable area in which to express milk. Most of these laws also provide that if the private location requirement would provide an undue hardship on the employer, the employer is exempted from the requirement.
Under these laws, women who need breaks other than their standard breaks and lunchtime breaks for expressing milk will not be paid for those break times.
Several of the laws also prohibit employers from discriminating against nursing mothers who exercise their rights to express milk at work. Hawaii provides the broadest protection of all to nursing mothers. Hawaii law provides that nursing mothers may not be discriminated against in hiring or any other employment decisions because they are breastfeeding. Mothers are also entitled to nurse their babies in the workplace in Hawaii.
Several states, like Illinois, merely encourage employers to provide accommodations to working mothers who are nursing their infants.
Other states, like Texas, have set forth standards under which employers may advertise that they are "mother friendly" or "infant friendly," based upon their support of breastfeeding mothers. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |