Senate Bill 0344, also known as the "Lactation Accommodation in Airports Act" is in the works in Illinois. The bill recently passed both houses. This is very exciting news for mothers who travel and need a safe and private place to express milk or feed their babies. To be clear, in Illinois, women can already nurse their babies without covering anywhere they are legally authorized to be. But as any nursing mom knows, nursing in public and pumping in public are two very different things. Many women are comfortable nursing their babies in the open with or without a cover. However, in order to express breast milk you have to be hooked up to a loud and obnoxious breast pump. Some pumps require an electrical connection and many working mothers must express breast milk around the clock every 2 or 3 hours when they are without their babies. This new proposed bill would require Illinois airports to provide a clean and private place to express milk. I know many working mothers who travel for work who would benefit greatly from this law. If passed, the law would go into effect January 1, 2017.
For more information about the bill visit: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=0344&GAID=13&GA=99&DocTypeID=SB&LegID=84305&SessionID=88
To learn about all the breastfeeding laws on the books in Illinois, click here.
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