Affordable Care Act provisions will increase breastfeeding among working mothers

Dec 16 2010

Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR):

What:

Millions of working mothers were not able to express breast milk while at work until the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). The law requires employers to provide nursing breaks and a private, sanitary place to express breast milk for most mothers employed on an hourly basis. The ACA provisions for breastfeeding cover three-fifths of employed women living in families below 350 percent of the government poverty line (about $50,000 for a family of two).

This new report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research includes first-ever estimates of coverage among employed women across lines of income, age, education, and race/ethnicity. IWPR's findings show how and why breastfeeding rates through the age of six months will increase—but may fall short of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Healthy People 2020 goals released this month.

Better Health for Mothers and Children: Breastfeeding Accommodations under the Affordable Care Act, by Robert Drago, Jeffrey Hayes, and Youngmin Yi will be released at a teleconference this Friday, December 17^th. All members of the press and bloggers are invited to attend.

Who:

• Robert Drago, Ph.D., Director of Research with IWPR.
• Jeffrey Hayes, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate with IWPR.
• Robin Stanton, MA, RD, LD, Chair of the United States Breastfeeding Committee.
• Melissa Bartick, MD, Instructor with Harvard Medical School and Chair of the Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition.

When:

Friday, December 17, 2010
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST (11:00 a.m. PST)

Dial-in information:
Phone: 1-800-894-5910
Participant Code: 7IWPR

SOURCE Institute for Women's Policy Research