(courtesy of MomsRising.com)
Tell your representatives in Congress to support the Breastfeeding Promotion Act today! Today, 56% of mothers with infants are in the workplace1, and many of them face huge barriers - or outright discrimination - when they return to work and need to take breaks in order to pump milk. Tenia from Maryland shared, "I find it appalling that it's left to individual supervisors... if, where and for how long a nursing mother can pump at work! I was told it would depend what my workload looked like if I would be 'allowed' to pump." The Breastfeeding Promotion Act, introduced by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (NY) and Senator Jeff Merkley (OR), would support employers and nursing moms in the following ways:
• Requiring employers to make reasonable efforts to provide appropriate space and break time for mothers to express milk;
• Protecting breastfeeding women from being fired or discriminated against in the workplace;
• Providing tax incentives for businesses that establish private lactation areas in the workplace; and
• Allowing families to deduct the cost of breastfeeding equipment on their taxes, as is the case with other common medical expenses.2
Some mothers who return to work choose to stop breastfeeding, but many of those who do wish to continue find it next to impossible because of barriers in the workplace. Even well-intentioned employers may be unaware about how to accommodate nursing moms, leaving women using sheets to cover up in cubicles, cramming into bathroom stalls with breast pumps, or even hiding out in dingy supply rooms just to pump breast milk for their babies.