Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor David J. Canepa
Supervisor Don Horsley
Subject: Worksite Lactation Rooms
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution requiring the implementation of worksite lactation rooms in all new County-owned buildings in which County employees will work.
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BACKGROUND:
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of an infant's life. Medical research has linked breastfeeding to several health benefits for both mother and child which includes decreased risks in obesity, childhood infections, and breast and ovarian cancers. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2015, four out of five mothers started breastfeeding, but only about 25% were exclusively breastfeeding at six months. Under current and recently enacted California labor laws, every employer shall make reasonable efforts to provide break time to nursing employees who request to express breast milk in a location that is private, not a toilet stall or bathroom, and is in close proximity to the employee's work area, among other requirements.
The County has supported workplace policies that promote breastfeeding through its lactation accommodation policies and its Worksite Lactation Program where County Departments provide lactation rooms or spaces, some of which exceed California mandates for lactation accommodations. At present there are approximately 32 San Mateo County worksites and counting that have a lactation room or space.
DISCUSSION:
The County is currently constructing, and planning to construct a number of capital improvements. In order to further promote the healthy practice of breastfeeding and to better accommodate and enable nursing county employees to do so, all County-owned buildings, in which County employees will work, that are designed and constructed after the passage of this resolution...
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