"If you can't say something nice, don't say nuthin' at all."
Posted on 10/03/2007 1:53:43 PM PDT by pabianice
Want to know about new laws and pending legislation that promotes breastfeeding? Advocates are working hard to protect women's right to breastfeed in public and to pump breastmilk at work. Others are promoting breastfeeding to supplant the $600 million per year the US W.I.C. program spends on infant formula, and are looking at putting enforcement teeth in the US commitment to the W.H.O.'s code on the Marketing of Breast Milk Substitutes.
You can find information on the latest legislation on the La Leche League page below (click the 'back' button to return to Breastfeeding.com):
A Current Summary of Breastfeeding Legislation in the U.S.
Also, visit "My Bill and Welcome To It!" By Senator Ellen Anderson.
The following is a statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s efforts to support breastfeeding mothers through the New Mother’s Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act.
Breastfeeding.com would like to encourage all interested mothers to contact their representatives and senators and express their support for Congresswoman Maloney's bill. You can find the email and postal addresses for your local Congressperson at http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov.
PRESS STATEMENT on NEW MOTHER'S BREASTFEEDING PROMOTION AND PROTECTION ACT (This statement can be attributed to MICHAL ANN YOUNG, MD, FAAP)
For Release: March 24, 1998 12:00 P.M. (EST)
The American Academy of Pediatrics and its 53,000 members, enthusiastically endorses Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s efforts to support breastfeeding mothers and infants and to encourage employers to support workplace lactation programs through the New Mother’s Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act.
As a practicing pediatrician and neonatologist, the Breastfeeding Coordinator with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Washington, D.C. Chapter, and the mother of three breast fed infants, I know from experience the value of breastfeeding babies. Human breast milk clearly is the best source of nutrition for the human infant.
Last December, the Academy issued a new policy statement on breastfeeding which affirmed the Academy’s recommendation that breastfeeding continue through the first year of life. The policy cites research indicating that breastfeeding provides health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic and environmental advantages unmatched by formula feeding.
There is evidence that breastfeeding can decrease the incidence or severity of infant illnesses such as diarrhea, ear infections and bacterial meningitis. Breastfeeding possibly offers some protection against sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), insulin-dependent diabetes and allergic diseases, among others.
The benefits are not only for the infant. Employers also benefit because healthier infants mean fewer parental absences and lower health care costs. In addition, research indicates that breastfeeding can reduce a mother’s risk of serious medical conditions, including osteoporosis, and ovarian and premenopausal breast cancer.
Despite the many benefits of breast milk, not enough babies in this country are breastfed and few are breastfed for the recommended one year. Many women stop breastfeeding when they return to work outside the home. The Academy believes that more babies would receive the benefits of breast milk if more employers provided appropriate facilities and adequate time in the workplace for expression of breast milk.
Rep. Maloney’s bill not only would help women by giving them time to express at work, but also employers, by giving them tax breaks to provide lactation facilities and support programs. In addition, the bill’s provision to establish Food and Drug Administration standards for breastpumps will help to ensure that working women can efficiently supply enough milk to nourish their babies.
With an efficient breast pump, the necessary amount of milk can be expressed in 20-30 minutes, two or three times per average work day. We are pleased that this legislation will regulate pumps, since the use of an inefficient pump can reduce the supply of breast milk available to the infant, and possibly discourage some mothers from continuing to express milk at work, or to breastfeed altogether. We welcome regulation of this equipment by the FDA. Hopefully these regulations will not result in added cost to the price of a breast pump.
The Breastfeeding Promotion and Protection Act would provide greater societal support for breastfeeding mothers and infants by helping to reduce the many obstacles that prevent new mothers from breastfeeding when they return to work.
The Academy looks forward to working with Congresswoman Maloney to ensure more infants have the benefits of breast milk in their first year of life.
# # # The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 53,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists, and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety, and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.
American Academy of Pediatrics Department of Government Liaison 601 13th Street, NW Suite 400 North Washington, DC 20005
We haven’t had a good public breastfeeding thread in a while. That this story has numerous other hot button issues associated with it will make it all the better.
on my way to the store for popcorn.
The problem with Breast Feeding in Public is that the typically Earthy mother will sit down in the aisle of a store and obstruct the business, then shriek about Rights when she is told to move it.
This is disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why must brests become a minority group now????? For years, women have managed to brest feed babies. My wife somehow managed three of them so far. Soon every employer will have to give extra time for lunches and breaks.
I can't wait until "working for a living" is considered a disability under the ADA, so the ENTIRE POPULATION can go on welfare at the same time, and live off "government income" (whatever that is).....
All right,I’ll be the bad guy.
TTIWWP!
I suppose it is out of the question for these mothers to stay home with their babies so they can do the feeding in private.
Oh no, it is imperitive that they bring little Eggbert to the GAP.
Women like her are bringing down the equality that women worked so hard to obtain. Proving women are the “fair sex” and can’t be trusted to do any “real work”. God save us from these fools.
LOL...since when do regulations NOT add to the cost of things?
"If you can't say something nice, don't say nuthin' at all."
I know, I find it hard to believe too, but if it's true, it's taking "earth mother exhibitionism" to a new low. And if true, I truly doubt that's the way the law was intended to be used, but-if true-it shows what happens when laws are written sloppily. I wonder what the cops would have done if they'd been called to that fast food joint? ( The woman who moved took her food and left.)
If I see a woman openly breastfeeding without a blanky over the kid, I’m going to call her a hog. I just call it as I see it.
I nursed my child for nearly 2 years and I would have rather died than expose myself to anyone in public. I knew all the good restroom and seating areas, and I also knew how to find a private space when I needed to do so. When nothing else was an option, I could do it without the slightest risk of being seen by anyone. This should be a non-issue.
“Crazy” is indeed the word for it...I hope it’s just a UL. But if true, what kind of AW would insist on forcing another person WATCH her breast feed while she (the BF’g woman) is stripped to the waist on one side???? (Like I said, she wasn’t being discreet).
I've scoured the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and for the life of me, I can't find this "right." Is it in the same place as the Right to Murder Your Baby and the Separation of Church and State?
As a man, all I can say is if women can do this in public, then I want to be able to pee on trees and bushes in public.
Fair is fair.
Well on our way to having a law for everything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.