Dear friends,

Those of you who are interested in being involved in the process of developing
U.S. Federal legislation to protect breastfeeding will be interested in this.

I spoke to Rep. Maloney's legislative aide, Ms. Gail Ravnitsky, and she sent me
the following draft of proposed legislation.  She made a very clear and specific
request to me that she *not* get dozens of responses from people on various
mailing lists at this time.  She asked me, and I agreed, to accept comments,
compile and summarize them, and pass them on to her.  When the legislation is
introduced, you can then communicate your support and/or concerns about it *to
your own congressperson*.  This is key because the legislation will go nowhere
unless the majority of Congress feels this is an important issue to *their*
constituents.

You may copy and repost this to whatever lists you belong to, provided you
include my message and my email address: <[log in to unmask]> for responses.  I
will be posting it to Lactnet and Lactivist.  I'd like it to go also to TLC and
any attachment-parenting and/or breastfeeding lists you know of.

Rachael Hamlet
Owner, Lactivist List
Author, The Breastfeeding Advocacy Page
http://www.clark.net/pub/activist/bfpage/bfpage.html

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Rep. Carolyn Maloney's New Mothers' Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act
DRAFT January 6, 1998

A BILL to support breastfeeding by new mothers and encourage employers to
support workplace lactation programs, and for other purposes.

Findings:
The Congress finds that:
Women with infants and toddlers are the fastest growing segment of
today's labor force;

At least 50% of women who are employed when they become pregnant return
to the labor force by the time their children are 3 months old;

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding for
at least the first 12 months of a child's life.  AAP recommends that
mothers begin breastfeeding within the first hour after delivery and that
arrangements are made to provide expressed breast milk if mother and
child must separate during the first year.

The United States Surgeon General and the American Academy of Pediatrics
agree that breast milk is the best form of nutrition for children during
the first months of life.

Although the Pregnancy Discrimination Act was enacted in 1978,
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or
related medical condition, courts have not interpreted this to include
breastfeeding, while the intent of the Congress was to include it.

Women who wish to continue breastfeeding after returning to work have
relatively few and simple needs: availability of suitable, dependable,
efficient breast pumps; a convenient, safe, private, and comfortable
location at the worksite; and the ability to pump her breasts two or
three times during the work shift;

Many employers have seen positive results in facilitating lactation
programs in the workplace, including low absenteeism, high productivity,
high company loyalty, high employee morale, and lower health care costs.

Women who can breastfeed in their place of employment benefit their
employers because these women have higher morale, higher self-esteem,
increased productivity, more company loyalty, and lower health care
costs;

Because infant illness is a frequent cause of absenteeism among employed
mothers, worksite programs that aim to improve infant health may also
bring about a reduction in maternal absenteeism;

Mothers of formula-fed children missed a day's work because their
children were ill three times more often than breast-fed children;

Breastmilk contains all the nutrients a child needs for ideal growth and
development, including helpful antibodies, proteins and immune cells that
can only be found in breast milk, promotes closeness between mother and
child, is easy to digest, and helps guard against juvenile diabetes,
lymphomas, Crohn's disease, celiac disease, and a number of chronic liver
diseases;

Studies show that children who are not breastfed have higher rates of
death, meningitis, childhood leukemia and other cancers, diabetes,
respiratory illness, bacterial and viral infections, diarrhoeal diseases,
otitis media, allergies, obesity, and developmental delays;

In 1997, the United States had one of the lowest breastfeeding rates of
all industrialized nations--and one of the highest rates of infant
mortality.

Breastfeeding may help reduce the mother's risk of breast and ovarian
cancer, and osteoporosis;

Breastfeeding releases a hormone in a woman's body that causes her
uterus to return to its normal size and shape more quickly, and another
hormone related to breastfeeding acts as a natural tranquilizer;


The bill will:
1.      Ensure that Breastfeeding is a protected activity under civil rights
law, requiring that women cannot be discriminated against in the
workplace for pumping milk, breastfeeding, or related activities.

2.      Encourage employers to set up a safe, private, and sanitary
environment for women to express milk by providing a tax credit for
employers who set up a lactation location, purchase or rent lactation or
lactation-related equipment, hire a lactation consultant, or otherwise
promote a lactation-friendly environment.

3.      Grant working women breastmilk breaks of up to one hour per day for up
to one year following the birth of a child to breastfeed or express milk.
 This time could be taken in three 20-minute breaks or two 30-minute
breaks.

4.      Require the FDA to develop minimum quality standards for breast
pumps, to ensure that products on the market are safe and effective.

5.      Provide increased funding to WIC's breastfeeding promotion,
education, and support initiative, which now totals approximately $46
million per year, without compromising other WIC objectives.

6.      Grant federal employees breastmilk breaks of up to one hour per day
for up to one year following the birth of a child to breastfeed or
express milk.  This time could be taken in three 20-minute breaks or two
30-minute breaks.

************************** End Forwarded Material **************************