Bill 73.

Summary.

The bill amends Article 33 of the Consolidated Text of Law 50 of 1995 to provide that every breastfeeding mother has an appropriate space in her public or private workplace. That space is intended for expressing and storing breast milk and, where possible, breastfeeding her child. The provision covers expression and breastfeeding until the child reaches twenty-four months of age. It also provides that the mother has the facilities needed to express milk and breastfeed through the end of her workday.

The space described in Article 33 must be private, comfortable for both milk expression and breastfeeding, and adequately ventilated and lit. It must meet the hygiene and sanitary conditions required for the area and for handling the infant’s food. The bill requires a refrigerator with a freezer used exclusively to store expressed breast milk. It also requires sanitary facilities for washing and drying milk expression equipment and maintaining the mother’s hygiene. The space must measure no less than four square meters, regardless of how many breastfeeding women work or provide services in the company or institution.

Article 33 also requires the space to contain informational materials on the advantages and benefits of breastfeeding and on how to breastfeed correctly, including until the child reaches twenty-four months of age. It calls for information and contact details concerning proper manual and pump expression, as well as the storage and transport of breast milk. Information must also address administering the milk by bottle, drinking glass, cup or spoon. These requirements form part of the proposed conditions for the space available to breastfeeding mothers at work.

The bill further replaces Article 35 of the same Consolidated Text. Under the proposed wording, every public or private institution must have a breastfeeding room that gives a working mother the facilities needed to express her milk and store it under appropriate refrigeration until the end of her workday. This requirement applies during the first twenty-four months of breastfeeding. Pamphlets about the importance of breastfeeding must be distributed in the selected location. Article 3 expressly identifies Articles 33 and 35 as the provisions being amended, while Article 4 sets the effective date as the day after promulgation.

The bill therefore concerns public and private institutions that would provide breastfeeding spaces, companies with breastfeeding mothers among their personnel, and the working mothers who would use those spaces. Its provisions also concern the labor sector and maternal and infant care activities associated with expressing, storing and administering breast milk.