Last year, there was a HUGE amount of concern over the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)(Pub.L. 111-148).  So many people where concerned that law was vague and that they would be fined for not having health insurance or that all people would be covered by state sponsored health insurance.  I read the law (well, I glanced through over 2000 pages of the law.  It was mostly blah blah blah….Secretary of Health can decide…blah blah blah) and the one provision that stuck out to me was the provision (section 4207) that exempt employees be provided space and time to express breastmilk during working hours.

In essence, this law requires that employers of more than 50 employees provide space for women to express breast milk.  The company does not need to pay for women for the time they spend doing that and it does not provide for punishment for employers who discriminate against a breastfeeding mother.  The U.S. Department of Labor has a webpage (http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/) where you can go and find out more information regarding your rights as a breast feeding mother.

Luckily, Congress is attempting to expand these rights to all women through the Passage of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2011 (http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/LegislationPolicy/ActionCampaigns/BreastfeedingPromotionAct/tabid/115/Default.aspx/).

Versions of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act have been presented to Congress every two years since 2001 and have received little attention and have not been passed.  The passage of this act would give women protections under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  What this means is that an employer would not be able to discriminate against a woman for breastfeeding.  I encourage you to contact your congressional representatives and voice your support to protect women’s rights to breastfeed and prevent discrimination for those that do (http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5162/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7980).

In addition to federal protections, many states have also passed laws protecting a woman’s right to breastfeed (http://www.ncsl.org/IssuesResearch/Health/BreastfeedingLaws/tabid/14389/Default.aspx).

A great website: “You Can Breastfeed Here” (http://youcanbreastfeedhere.com/)  is helping breastfeeding mothers connect with each other by sharing locations where they have found comfortable places to breastfeed in public.   I always check out the website whenever I travel.