Pregnant and lactating individuals have the right to fair treatment and reasonable accommodations in the workplace.
The passage of the recent PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act expanded workplace protections to nearly 9 million employees who were previously excluded by the Break Time for Nursing Mothers law, ensuring that more postpartum workers have adequate workplace support. This legislation marked a major step toward making workplaces more equitable for breastfeeding families. Despite this legislative progress, urgent challenges remain: lack of awareness, inconsistent enforcement, and fear of retaliation prevent too many families from benefiting fully.
Human milk feeding is a public health imperative, and without support at work, many families are left behind, with the greatest impact on those in low-wage jobs. Ensuring every worker can safely express milk is essential to building healthier workplaces and communities where families can thrive. Before returning to work, new parents and their babies need time to bond and establish feeding routines. A national paid family and medical leave policy would provide this critical foundation, supporting breastfeeding success from the start.
Breastfeeding-supportive legislation is important because human milk is the optimal, species-specific food for human babies, and it plays a critical role in building and supporting a young child’s immune system, reducing the risk of sudden unexplained infant death (SUID), obesity, and asthma, as well as reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and breast and ovarian cancers in the mother. Without adequate time and space to pump at work, many mothers are forced to stop breastfeeding earlier than planned—even though all major medical authorities recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life.
“August is National Breastfeeding Month, a time when the U.S. Breastfeeding Committee (USBC) celebrates the progress we’ve made so far, and shines a light on the opportunities that lie ahead, especially increasing access to breastfeeding support and human milk for families from marginalized communities whose needs are often left out of healthcare policy,” said Jennifer Day, the Executive Director of the USBC. “We’re thrilled to celebrate the efforts of all of our partners working to expand access to human milk across the country, during National Breastfeeding Month, and beyond!”
To learn more and take action during National Breastfeeding Month, explore these resources:
- Learn about your workplace rights under the PUMP Act and PWFA: https://www.usbreastfeeding.org/know-your-rights-pump-act–pwfa.html
- Explore breastfeeding information and resources for parents: https://www.usbreastfeeding.org/breastfeeding-resources-for-parents.html
- Get involved with National Breastfeeding Month events and campaigns: https://www.usbreastfeeding.org/national-breastfeeding-month.html
The U.S. Breastfeeding Committee is a national coalition of more than 140 organizational members representing nonprofits (national, state, local, and community), breastfeeding coalitions, and federal agencies working to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and human milk feeding.
