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Airport Lactation Rooms Could Make Chicago 'Friendliest Breastfeeding City'

By Ted Cox | July 31, 2015 2:10pm
 Backed by Ald. Edward Burke (r.), U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth says airports are more likely to have smoking lounges than to have a breastfeeding station.
Backed by Ald. Edward Burke (r.), U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth says airports are more likely to have smoking lounges than to have a breastfeeding station.
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DNAinfo/Ted Cox

STREETERVILLE — Backed by a prominent member of Congress, a City Council committee took its show on the road Friday to call for mandatory breastfeeding stations at O'Hare and Midway airports.

To publicize the measure, Ald. Edward Burke (14th), chairman of the Finance Committee, held the meeting at the new Prentice Women's Hospital, joined by U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Hoffman Estates), herself a new mother, having given birth at the hospital last November.

Burke said he was out to make Chicago "the friendliest breastfeeding city in the nation."

Duckworth, who has sponsored federal legislation on the subject that's still pending in Congress, said, "It's a very intimate, personal thing," especially when a new mother is not actually feeding a baby, but expressing breast milk for later.

 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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"All airports have smoking lounges, but only eight out of 100 have breastfeeding stations," Duckworth said, citing figures published last year in the medical journal Breastfeeding Medicine on the 100 busiest U.S. airports.

"Air travel is a major barrier for working mothers," Burke said.

"Airports would present one of my biggest obstacles," said Duckworth, who is running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Highland Park) next year.

Several witnesses testified on the health benefits of breastfeeding for both mothers and infants, and on the health risks when a lactating mother is unable to express breast milk when necessary.

While breastfeeding in public has become accepted in recent decades, Dr. Lindsay Marie Skibley, of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said, "Babies don't like to eat under a sheet," thus emphasizing the need for privacy and lactation stations in settings like airports.

Burke introduced Skibley, who is six months pregnant with her second child, by calling her "clearly a woman who has a particular interest in this matter."

The city ordinance, co-sponsored by Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th), calls on airports to offer a lactation room at each terminal. The room must be kept clean and must have a door that can be locked from the inside, as well as a table, chair and electrical outlet.

The General Assembly passed a similar statewide bill, but Gov. Bruce Rauner is yet to sign it into law, and Burke pointed out it wouldn't go into effect until 2017.

"Working mothers should not have to wait," Burke said.

On that note, city Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans testified that Midway and O'Hare already have a breastfeeding station apiece (in Terminal 3 at O'Hare), and that all O'Hare terminals would have one by the end of the year, when the ordinance is slated to take effect.

Burke called that a "startling announcement," saying, "You're gonna comply with the law before it's even passed."

The measure passed without opposition and should be on the docket for the next City Council meeting Sept. 24 for final approval.

"We can start out a nationwide trend," Burke said.

Hairston suggested the testimony pointed out the need for breastfeeding rooms in train stations and even high-rises as well, and Burke agreed.

"Let's get the airports going, though," Duckworth added.

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