Family-Friendly Workplaces: How Health Reform Helps Nursing Moms

Working mothers who breastfeed will benefit from a provision in the new health reform law (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or the ACA). Specifically, the law states that employers must provide nursing mothers with an adequate and sanitary space (i.e. not a bathroom) to express breast milk and sufficient break time to accommodate pumping, for at least one year after a child’s birth.

About half of the states already have policies in place that provide breastfeeding mothers with the support and space they need — the new federal law does not pre-empt state laws that may provide even greater protections, such as compensated break time — but the states that do not have guidelines in place are required to begin implementing this policy immediately. The U.S. Department of Labor has already issued materials to educate employers and employees on this provision. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other breastfeeding advocacy organizations will continue to offer guidance on proper workplace practices for mothers and employers.

Not all mothers breastfeed, but for those who do, the health reform law ensures that they do not have to make the choice between nursing and working. Allowing time and space for expressing breast milk at work is a win-win-win situation for breastfeeding mothers, babies, and their employers. Mothers and babies are able to continue experiencing the health and other benefits which drew them to breastfeed in the first place. Employers benefit because healthy mothers and babies mean less time off work, lower health care costs, and happy employees.

To learn more about this provision and others that will benefit women and their families, visit our series of fact sheets.