President Obama orders new federal breastfeeding policy

Although breastfeeding private and public sector workers’ rights are included in the new health care reform law, President Obama has requested guidelines be implemented for federal employees:

President Obama is asking federal personnel officials to draft “appropriate workplace accommodations” for federal employees who are nursing mothers.

The president issued a memo Monday to the Office of Personnel Management, asking for new guidelines to be published when ready.

The order is required by the new health-care reform law, which mandates new breastfeeding rights primarily for hourly workers in the private and public sectors. But Obama asked the federal govenrment to go a step farther by establishing new guidelines for all federal employees, no matter their status, according to White House aides.

It’s great to see breastfeeding being legitimized as a natural and necessary activity for some mothers as opposed to being treated as a distraction from those with “delicate sensibilities” or straight up public indecency. Babies suck boobs. To eat. It happens. Let’s get over it.

Via.