page_title: Breastfeeding in public
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Breastfeeding in public / Attitudes by country and continent / North America / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Red Cross [tent]] colony in Forest Park, St. Louis, as sketched by Marguerite Martyn in 1920. These tents were open to all people because of the August heat. Children in flap of tent are playing jacks. One woman is nursing a baby.
context_page_description: The social attitude and legal status regarding the practice of breastfeeding in public vary widely in cultures around the world. In many countries, both in the Global South and in a number of Western countries, breastfeeding babies in open view of the general public is common and generally not regarded as an issue. In many parts of the world including Australia, some parts of the United States and Europe, along with some countries in Asia, women have an explicit legal right to nurse in public and in the workplace.
  Even though the practice may be legal or socially accepted, some mothers may nevertheless be reluctant to expose a breast in public to breastfeed due to actual or potential objections by other people, negative comments, or harassment. It is estimated that around 63% of mothers across the world have publicly breast-fed. The media have reported a number of incidents in which workers or members of the public have objected to or forbidden women breastfeeding. Some mothers avoid the negative attention and choose to move to another location. But some mothers have protested their treatment, and have taken legal action or engaged in protests.
context_section_description: A number of issues constrain mothers from breastfeeding in public in the United States. In 2011 the US Surgeon General issued a plea to promote breastfeeding and stated in it: "Although focusing on the sexuality of female breasts is common on the mass media, visual images of breastfeeding are rare, and a mother may never have seen a woman breastfeeding". Another issue, especially in extended breastfeeding, is that US medical providers are not well-trained in supporting breastfeeding mothers. In a survey of medical professionals published in 2012, including physicians, midwives, residents, and nursing students, only 57.8% felt that breastfeeding over 1 year of age was normal. The recommendations for breastfeeding are until at least one year, yet in 2016 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that only 51.8% of infants were breastfed at six months and 30.7% of infants were being breastfed at one year old.
  In a 2004 survey conducted by the American Dietetic Association, 43% of the 3,719 respondents believed women ought to have the right to breast-feed in public. In spite of this, women breastfeeding in public have met with social resistance and even arrest.  In some public places and workplaces, rooms for mothers to nurse in private have been designated.
  U.S. legislation governing breastfeeding varies from state to state and a limited federal law only applies to federal government premises. A United States House of Representatives appropriations bill (HR 2490) contained an amendment specifically permitting breastfeeding and was signed into law on September 29, 1999. It stipulated that no government funds may be used to enforce any prohibition on women breastfeeding their children in federal buildings or on federal property. Further, a federal law also enacted in 1999 specifically provides that "a woman may breastfeed her child at any location in a federal building or on federal property, if the woman and her child are otherwise authorized to be present at the location."
  Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act and required employers to provide a reasonable break time for an employee to breastfeed her child if it is less than one year old. The employee must be allowed to breastfeed in a private place, other than a bathroom. The employer is not required to pay the employee during the break time. Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not required to comply with the law if doing so would impose an undue hardship to the employer based on its size, finances, nature, or structure of its business.
  A number of incidents of harassment of nursing mothers that gained media attention prompted a number of U.S. states to act. These actions included viral videos of people harassing breastfeeding mothers in public, protests, and social media campaigns. A particular incident with a Target employee harassing a breastfeeding mother helped to launch a new trend with corporations making breastfeeding accepted in their stores.
  As of July 2018, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands have passed legislation that explicitly allows women to breastfeed in public.  Further, at least 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands exempt them from prosecution for public indecency or indecent exposure for doing so.
caption: Woman in center is feeding her baby in a tent city erected in 1920 by the Red Cross in St. Louis, Missouri, so city families could get away from the August heat. (Drawing by Marguerite Martyn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.)
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