Breastfeeding: The Modesty Dilemma

   When I hear people say that they are all for breastfeeding but there's nothing wrong with a little modesty I'm reminded of the times I would visit the aquatic center pools at the physical education building in college. They were open to the families of students, faculty, and staff on the weekends. Being that it was in a university setting you would get an eclectic group of people out there. I remember there were several Muslim families that would visit quite regularly and the women would get into the pool wearing swimming attire that covered everything except their faces, hands, and feet. That was their definition and exhibition of modesty. There was a rule that no thong bikinis were allowed, but the spectrum of swimming attire out there included everything from what the Muslim ladies were wearing to the bikinis that other ladies were wearing that got about as close to being thongs as they could get without actually being thongs. Just about every style of swimwear between those extremes was represented. That's typically what you see when it comes to breastfeeding. You have mothers who feed their babies covered up and out of the way and you have those who just pull out a breast wherever they are and take care of business. You have mothers whose nursing styles fall somewhere between those two extremes. I don't mean extremes in a bad way I only use that word to show how opposite those styles are from each other.

   If you were to make the same statement about modesty with regards to swimwear as you would about breastfeeding my question would be the same for both, whose standard of modesty are we abiding by? Everyone at the pool was wearing what in their minds was modest for them and what they felt comfortable wearing just like every breastfeeding mother feeds her baby according to her standard of modesty and what's comfortable for her. That's why it's confusing when people make such a statement. Modesty is such a subjective term as we've heard hundreds of times before. If you gathered a hundred people together from all backgrounds and all walks of life and asked them what modesty looks like to them with regards to breastfeeding you could potential get a hundred different variations of modesty. How do you pick one that everyone can agree on or that will actually work for everyone? Which version is the right version? It is virtually impossible. The only workable solution is to allow people the freedom to choose what version works for them.

   Modesty is tricky when it comes to breastfeeding because even if a mother wanted to cover or be discreet about what she was doing her baby might not allow it. For people that have been exposed to breastfeeding all their lives like myself it can be as disturbing and uncomfortable to see a baby struggling and fighting under a cover as people claim it is for them if they should happen to see a nipple during a nursing session. When we demand a certain standard of modesty for every mother we can make feeding their babies exponentially more difficult then it has to be. I witnessed a mother trying to walk and nurse her baby and keep him covered while her husband looked at tools in the home improvement department in the store where I work. After struggling and becoming noticeably frustrated as she tried to keep her baby covered she threw in the towel and ended the nursing session altogether. She wasn't happy and judging by her baby's cries of discomfort he wasn't very happy either.

   So when people say they are all for breastfeeding but there's nothing wrong with a little modesty, they may actually be correct provided they could actually come up with one single standard of modesty that works for everyone. Since it is virtually impossible to find a version or standard that works for everyone then perhaps there is something wrong with saying there's nothing wrong with a little modesty: it's potentially different for everyone.

~Tom Miller

Breastfeeding Laws

Nursing In Public Laws
From National Conference of State Legislatures

Forty-five states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands have laws that specifically allow women to breastfeed in any public or private location.  (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.)

Twenty-eight states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands exempt breastfeeding from public indecency laws. (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.)

Twenty-four states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have laws related to breastfeeding in the workplace. (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming.)

Twelve states and Puerto Rico exempt breastfeeding mothers from jury duty. (California, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon and Virginia.)

Five states and Puerto Rico have implemented or encouraged the development of a breastfeeding awareness education campaign. (California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Vermont.)

Several states have unique laws related to breastfeeding.

Here are two pages that list all the Federal and State laws pertaining to breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding State Laws

Breastfeeding Law: Know Your Legal Rights

Pumping At Work Laws

From United States Department of Labor

Fact Sheet #73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the 
FLSA 

This fact sheet provides general information on the break time requirement for nursing mothers in the 
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”), which took effect when the PPACA was signed 
into law on March 23, 2010 (P.L. 111-148). This law amended Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards 
Act (FLSA). 

General Requirements 

Employers are required to provide “reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk.” Employers are also required to provide “a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.” 

The FLSA requirement of break time for nursing mothers to express breast milk does not preempt State 
laws that provide greater protections to employees (for example, providing compensated break time, 
providing break time for exempt employees, or providing break time beyond 1 year after the child’s 
birth). 

Time and Location of Breaks 

Employers are required to provide a reasonable amount of break time to express milk as frequently as 
needed by the nursing mother. The frequency of breaks needed to express milk as well as the duration of each break will likely vary. 

A bathroom, even if private, is not a permissible location under the Act. The location provided must be functional as a space for expressing breast milk. If the space is not dedicated to the nursing mother’s use, it must be available when needed in order to meet the statutory requirement. A space temporarily created or converted into a space for expressing milk or made available when needed by the nursing mother is sufficient provided that the space is shielded from view, and free from any intrusion from co-workers and the public. 

Coverage and Compensation 

Only employees who are not exempt from section 7, which includes the FLSA’s overtime pay 
requirements, are entitled to breaks to express milk. While employers are not required under the FLSA 
to provide breaks to nursing mothers who are exempt from the requirements of Section 7, they may be 
obligated to provide such breaks under State laws. 

Employers with fewer than 50 employees are not subject to the FLSA break time requirement if 
compliance with the provision would impose an undue hardship. Whether compliance would be an 
undue hardship is determined by looking at the difficulty or expense of compliance for a specific 
employer in comparison to the size, financial resources, nature, and structure of the employer’s business. 
All employees who work for the covered employer, regardless of work site, are counted when 
determining whether this exemption may apply. 

Employers are not required under the FLSA to compensate nursing mothers for breaks taken for the 
purpose of expressing milk. However, where employers already provide compensated breaks, an 
employee who uses that break time to express milk must be compensated in the same way that other 
employees are compensated for break time. In addition, the FLSA’s general requirement that the 
employee must be completely relieved from duty or else the time must be compensated as work time 
applies. See WHD Fact Sheet #22, Hours Worked under the FLSA. 

FLSA Prohibitions on Retaliation 

Section 15(a)(3) of the FLSA states that it is a violation for any person to “discharge or in any other 
manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted 
or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this Act, or has testified or is about to 
testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee.” 

Employees are protected regardless of whether the complaint is made orally or in writing. Complaints 
made to the Wage and Hour Division are protected, and most courts have ruled that internal complaints 
to an employer are also protected. 

Any employee who is “discharged or in any other manner discriminated against” because, for instance, 
he or she has filed a complaint or cooperated in an investigation, may file a retaliation complaint with 
the Wage and Hour Division or may file a private cause of action seeking appropriate remedies 
including, but not limited to, employment, reinstatement, lost wages and an additional equal amount as 
liquidated damages.