In California...
You can nurse with a cover
You can nurse without a cover
You can nurse out in the open
You can nurse in a private space
You can nurse day or night
You can nurse rain or shine
You can nurse in Church
You can nurse at a park
If your baby is hungry, nurse, nurse, nurse
https://www.ncsl.org/health/breastfeeding-state-laws provides the following information below, pasted from the website 11/5/23:
Cal. Health & Safety Code § 123365 (1996) requires all general acute care hospitals and special hospitals providing maternity care to make available a breastfeeding consultant or, alternatively, provide information to the mother on where to receive breastfeeding information.
Cal. Civil Code § 43.3 (1997) allows a mother to breastfeed her child in any location, public or private, except the private home or residence of another, where the mother and the child are otherwise authorized to be present.
Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code § 11218 (2013) specifies an applicant or recipient of aid is entitled to breastfeed her child in a county welfare department or other county office.
California Assembly Concurrent Resolution 155 (1998) encourages the state and employers to support and encourage the practice of breastfeeding by striving to accommodate the needs of employees, and by ensuring that employees are provided with adequate facilities for breastfeeding and expressing milk for their children. The resolution memorializes the governor to declare by executive order that all state employees be provided with adequate facilities for breastfeeding and expressing milk.
Cal. Health and Safety Code § 1647 (1999) declares that the procurement, processing, distribution or use of human milk for the purpose of human consumption is considered to be a rendition of a service rather than a sale of human milk.
Cal. Code of Civil Procedure § 210.5 (2000) requires the Judicial Court to adopt a standardized jury summons for use, which must include a specific reference to the rules for breastfeeding mothers. AB 1814 created the law and directs the Judicial Council to adopt a rule of court to allow the mother of a breastfed child to postpone jury duty for a period of up to one year and that after one year, jury duty may be further postponed upon written request by the mother.
Cal. Labor Code § 1030-1033 (2001) provides that employers need to allow a break and provide a room for a mother who desires to express milk in private. CA AB 1976 (2018) requires an employer to make reasonable efforts to provide an employee with use of a room or a location other than a bathroom, for these purposes. CA SB 142 (2019) requires the room or location other than a bathroom to have prescribed features. Requires an employer, among other things, to provide access to a sink and refrigerator in close proximity to the employee’s workspace.
Cal. Health and Safety Code § 1648 (2006) requires a hospital that collects, processes, stores or distributes human milk collection from a mother exclusively for her own child to comply with the standards for collection, processing, storage or distribution of human milk by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America unless the department of health approves alternate standards. No screening tests are required to be performed on human milk collected from a mother exclusively for her own child.
Cal. Health and Safety Code § 123360 (2007) requires the Department of Public Health to include the promotion of mothers breastfeeding their infants in its public service campaign; and require the department to develop a model eight-hour training course and to promote exclusive breastfeeding and specify hospital staff for whom the training is appropriate.
Cal. Health and Safety Code § 1257.9 (2007) states the Department of Public Health shall recommend a minimum eight-hour training to appropriate staff in general acute care hospitals that provide maternity care and have exclusive patient breastfeeding rates in the lowest 25 percent of the state.
Cal. Government Code § 12920-12923 (1980) make it unlawful to engage in specified discriminatory practices on the basis of sex related to individuals’ opportunity to seek, obtain and hold employment or housing. Cal. Government Code § 12926 (2012) defines sex to include breastfeeding or medical conditions related to breastfeeding.
Cal. Health and Safety Code § 123366 and § 123367 (2013) establishes the “Hospital Infant Feeding Act” and requires all acute care and special hospitals that have a perinatal unit to adopt the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding” of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, or an evidence-based alternative with targeted outcomes adopted by a health care service plan, or the Model Hospital Policy Recommendations as defined by § 123366.
Cal. Education Code § 222 (2015) requires schools operated by a school district or a county office of education, the California School for the Deaf, the California School for the Blind and charter schools to provide reasonable accommodations to a lactating pupil on a high school campus to express breast milk, breastfeed an infant child, or address other needs related to breastfeeding.
Cal. Business and Professions Code § 26120 (2017) includes breastfeeding in the warning of a government warning label for cannabis products.
Cal. Business and Professions Code § 26211 (2018) includes the potential harms of using cannabis while pregnant or breastfeeding in a public awareness campaign.
Cal. Penal Code § 4002.5 (2018) requires a county sheriff, or the administrator of a county jail, to develop and implement an infant and toddler breast milk feeding policy for lactating inmates detained or sentenced to a county jail that is based on accepted best practices.
Cal. Education Code § 66271.9 (2018) requires community colleges and state university, and encourages satellite campuses, to provide reasonable accommodations to a lactating student to express breast milk, breastfeed an infant child or address other needs related to breastfeeding. Requires educational institutions to provide a sink in the new construction, replacement, expansion or renovation, in addition to access to a private and secure room for breastfeeding students.
Cal. Public Utilities Code § 99176 (2019) requires multimodal transit stations that begin construction or a renovation on or after January 1, 2021, to include a lactation room.
Cal. Business and Professions Code §§ 4052.02 and 4052.03 (2019) require a pharmacist to provide counseling to the patient on the use of preexposure and postexposure prophylaxis which includes education on its safety during breastfeeding.
Check out the National WIC breastfeeding site for more information as well.
You do NOT have to nurse your baby in the bathroom! Would you eat a salad in the bathroom? Or drink your protein shake in the bathroom?
Poll: Do you breastfeed in public?
Yes - with a cover
Yes - without a cover
No
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