The Breastfeeding Promotion Act to the 107th Congress. The act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding by new mothers, provides for a performance standard for breast pumps, and provides tax incentives to encourage breastfeeding. The United States has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates of all industrialized nations and one of the highest rates of infant mortality. The American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended that mothers breastfeed for up to one year after the birth of a child.
Breast milk is known to be the first line of immunization defense.
It helps protect against a host of childhood diseases such as ear infections, juvenile diabetes, allergies, and more serious illnesses, like meningitis and lymphoma. And an employer should not stand in the way of a woman doing the most natural thing on earth- breastfeeding her child. Congresswoman Maloney first passed breastfeeding legislation in the 106th Congress when her Right to Breastfeed language was passed as part of the FY 2001 budget. The Congresswoman passed the legislation to ensure a woman's right to breastfeed her child on any portion of Federal property where the woman and her child are otherwise authorized to be.