by Heidi Green
April 20, 2010

It goes without saying that workplace bathrooms are not germ-free spaces for working mothers to express their milk and wash bottles and equipment. But many women working outside the home had few alternatives—until now. With the passage of the health care reform bill, working mothers have received support for expressing milk at work.

A major component of the Breastfeeding Promotion Act was rolled into the newly passed health care reform bill (officially known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), and employers are now required to accommodate breastfeeding employees. As part of the larger bill, this amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) became law on March 23, 2010.

Leading health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for a full six months, but maternity leave typically ends at (or often before) 12 weeks. This legislation recognizes that the ability to express milk at work is a necessity for breastfeeding mothers who must balance their own need to re-enter the workforce with caring for their babies.

According to Section 4207 of the bill:

• Employers must ensure that women in the workforce have access to the time and space they need to express their milk for their babies.
• This must be provided for one year after the child’s birth.
• The place employers provide must not be a bathroom. It must be shielded from view and free from intrusion by coworkers and the public.
• Employers are not required to pay their employees for the time they spend expressing their milk.
• Employers with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from these requirements if they would pose an undue hardship by causing the employer significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to the size, financial resources, nature, or structure of the business.
• These provisions do not preempt state laws from providing more protection for breastfeeding workers.

The law became effective as soon as it was signed. Although rules for enforcement are not yet in place, employees should discuss this issue with their employers and employers should act to proactively meet this need. (Details about enforcement will be available in the FLSA portion of the Department of Labor website.)

There are an ever-growing number of resources, but here are a few to help get you started:

• The Business Case for Breastfeeding
• Support for Breastfeeding in the Workplace from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Breastfeeding in the Workplace from the National Business Group on Health
• Worksite Lactation Support Directory from the International Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA)
• Working It Out: Breastfeeding at Work
• Work and Pump
• Breastfeeding Employees, Employers videos
• Workplace Support in Healthcare Reform

Ensuring that breastfeeding mothers have time and space to express their milk is a major step in the right direction of supporting women in the workplace! Let’s keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Editor’s Note—December 21, 2010
The U.S. Department of Labor has made it even easier for employers and employees to understand regulations for breastfeeding support in the workplace. You can visit the “Break Time for Nursing Mothers” portion of their website at http://www.dol.gov/whd/nursingmothers/.