Legislation to provide a special room for breastfeeding moms at airports operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is advancing in Trenton.

Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin, D-Middlesex, is one of four assemblywomen backing this bill to provide "lactation rooms" at terminals.

"A location that you can sit and have a little quiet privacy so that you can breastfeed your baby,"  she explained.

Pinkin says it is a proven fact that children who are breastfed are generally more healthy and resistant to illness.

"When they are breastfeeding, they get the immunities from the mother, so they are not as likely to get sick if they are in daycare, whatever, spreading it to other kids. It really has a lot of impact," she said.

"You know, we have diverse cultures now in our area. People are not necessarily comfortable with seeing a woman with her shirt open and breastfeeding a baby. So we want to have a place where they can do that privately, and for their own protection as well. And some of these babies that are fragile, you know, they have to concentrate, it is work for them to breastfeed, and we want them to be successful at it."

Pinkin says it is not a lot to ask for breastfeeding women.

The legislation passed the Assembly Women and Children Committee last Thursday.

The other assemblywomen behind bill A2504, Carol Murphy, D-Burlington, Valerie Vainieri-Huttle, D-Bergen, and Angela McKnight, D-Hudson.

 

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