Life presents a lot of challenges for a working mom. If working a full day only to come home to somebody who is almost guaranteed to have an energy advantage over them isn't enough, there's everything from daycare costs to what happens when somebody gets sick.
And for working moms with new children, the issue of how and where they can fit lactation into their work day can also arise.
However, it seems that one California law could do something to make that part, at least, go smoother.
This, however, changed when the Affordable Care Act amended the federal Fair Labor Standards Act to state that businesses had to provide "reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.”
It also stated that this space can't be a bathroom due to concerns that such a place cannot ensure safe, sanitary breast milk.
It doesn't help that bathrooms are widely considered uncomfortable to pump in for both spatial and security reasons.
Specifically, Section 1030 of the California Labor Code stated that they had to "provide the employee with the use of a room or other location, other than a toilet stall."
So if a business owner were to make an employee lactate in the bathroom, but not the toilet stall, they technically wouldn't be violating the code.
As CBS Sacramento reported, the Surgeon General found that breastfeeding helps protect babies from infections and diseases, as well as making them less likely to develop asthma, and obesity.
For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers exclusively nurse their babies during their first six months of life.
The surgeon General report went on to say that nursing decreases a mother's risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer.
These types were identified by the World Health Organization as two leading causes of death among women.
According to CBS Sacramento, what they found was that although 94% of moms started breastfeeding in 2016, less than 25% were exclusively nursing for six months as recommended.
The California Department of Health said that only 52% of nursing parents received support in the form of allotted time to space to lactate.
Furthermore, getting that support makes them twice as likely to exclusively nurse for six months as recommended.
With any luck, this law can make a positive change in giving little ones the best start possible.
