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Breastfeeding Moms Should Get Lactation Rooms at Chicago Airports: Aldermen

By Ted Cox | June 17, 2015 11:11am
 Aldermen are pressing an ordinance that would call for the city's two major airports to offer lactation rooms for new mothers.
Aldermen are pressing an ordinance that would call for the city's two major airports to offer lactation rooms for new mothers.
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CITY HALL — Aldermen are pressing an ordinance that would call for the city's two major airports to offer lactation rooms for new mothers.

Aldermen Edward Burke (14th) and Leslie Hairston (5th) co-sponsored an ordinance submitted at Wednesday's City Council meeting that would require lactation rooms at O'Hare and Midway airports.

Burke cited a survey conducted by the journal Breastfeeding Medicine showing that only eight of the 100 busiest U.S. airports offer private areas for nursing mothers.

Burke noted that the state Legislature recently sent a similar bill to Gov. Bruce Rauner, but it wouldn't take effect until 2017.

"Nursing mothers should not have to wait until 2017 for clean and private spaces to breastfeed their infants at Chicago airports," Burke said.

The ordinance, which would take effect in January, calls for new Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans to "provide and designate a room or other location at each airport terminal behind the airport security screening area for members of the public to express breast milk in private."

"We can't be a world-class city if we don't have world-class accommodations for the world visitors who come through Chicago's airports," Hairston added.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Hoffman Estates) has recently proposed a similar federal law, and Burke said he hoped his measure would spur Congress to act as well.

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