New Breastfeeding Law Goes into Effect Today

A majority of states have laws pertaining to breastfeeding (for a full list, see this summary). Oklahoma already has two breastfeeding laws on the books. The first protects a woman’s right to breastfeed in public (and states that breastfeeding does not violate the state’s indecent exposure law):

[A] mother may breast-feed her baby in any location where the mother is otherwise authorized to be.

Title 63, Section 1-234.1 (2004).

The second exempts a nursing mother from jury duty:

Mothers who are breast-feeding a baby, upon their request, shall be exempt from service as jurors.

Title 38, Section 28 (2001).

A new Oklahoma statute goes into effect today, but unlike the previous two laws, this one is essentially symbolic. It encourages but does not require employers to provide working mothers with unpaid break time to breastfeed or pump. It also encourages employers to provide a private, secure, and sanitary room other than a toilet stall for mothers to breastfeed or pump. While the law has no “bite” I’m still pleased to see nursing rooms mentioned in state legislation. Every bit of progress counts.

Here is the full text of the law:

SECTION 1. A. An employer may provide reasonable unpaid break time each day to an employee who needs to breast-feed or express breast milk for her child to maintain milk supply and comfort. The break time, if possible, shall run concurrently with any break time, paid or unpaid, already provided to the employee. An employer is not required to provide break time under this section if to do so would create an undue hardship on the operations of the employer.
B. An employer may make a reasonable effort to provide a private, secure, and sanitary room or other location in close proximity to the work area, other than a toilet stall, where an employee can express her milk or breast-feed her child.
C. The Department of Health shall issue periodic reports on breast-feeding rates, complaints received, and benefits reported by both working breast-feeding mothers and employers.
D. As used in this section:
1. “Employer” means a person engaged in business who has one or more employees, including the state and any political subdivision of the state;
2. “Employee” means any person engaged in service to an employer in the business of the employer;
3. “Reasonable efforts” means any effort that would not impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer’s business; and
4. “Undue hardship” means any action that requires significant difficulty or expense when considered in relation to factors such as the size of the business, its financial resources, and the nature and structure of its operation.
SECTION 2. This act shall become effective November 1, 2006.

Title 40, Section 435 (effective 11/1/06).