CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Senate Concurrent Resolution
No. 55

Introduced by Senator Hurtado
(Coauthors: Senators Caballero, Grove, Kamlager, Leyva, Limón, Melendez, Ochoa Bogh, Rubio, and Skinner)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Aguiar-Curry, Bauer-Kahan, Cervantes, Cristina Garcia, Nguyen, Quirk-Silva, and Waldron)

August 16, 2021

Relative to Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2021.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


SCR 55, as introduced, Hurtado. Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2021.
This measure would proclaim August 2021 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2021 in California. The measure would recognize the unique benefits that breastfeeding provides, as specified, and would affirm that Californians should work to ensure that barriers to initiation and continuation of breastfeeding are removed. The measure would encourage Californians to work together to explore ways to, among other things, improve women’s access to breastfeeding support services in medical, social, and employment settings.
Fiscal Committee: NO  
WHEREAS, Breastfeeding is an issue of great importance to women, infants, their families, and their physicians and is, therefore, of interest to the Legislature; and
WHEREAS, It is the first food system that, as babies, many humans are introduced to and sustained by; and
WHEREAS, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, and the World Health Organization recommend that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 month of age and continue to be breastfed until 12 months of age or longer as mutually desired; and
WHEREAS, In January 2011, the United States Surgeon General announced a “Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding” that identifies barriers to optimal breastfeeding in health care practices, employment, communities, research, public health infrastructure, and social networks, while also recommending methods in which families, communities, employers, and health care professionals could help to eliminate those barriers to improve breastfeeding rates and increase support for breastfeeding; and
WHEREAS, Research shows that human milk and breastfeeding provide advantages to general health, growth, and development while significantly decreasing the risk of a large number of acute and chronic diseases, including, among others, sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, allergies, diabetes, viral and bacterial infections, childhood obesity, childhood leukemia, necrotizing enterocolitis, and infant mortality; and
WHEREAS, Mothers who breastfeed have a decreased risk of breast, uterine, and ovarian cancer, postpartum depression, and osteoporosis later in life; and
WHEREAS, The nutrients exclusive to human milk are vital to the growth, development, and maintenance of the human brain and cannot be manufactured; and
WHEREAS, Breastfeeding has positive economic impacts on families by decreasing the need to pay for medical care for a sick infant and by eliminating the need to purchase infant formula; and
WHEREAS, The health benefits to breastfed children and their mothers result in lower health care costs for employers, less employee time off to care for sick children, and higher productivity and employee loyalty; and
WHEREAS, Employers, employees, and society benefit by supporting a mother’s decision to breastfeed and by helping to reduce the obstacles to initiating and continuing breastfeeding; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the month of August 2021 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2021 in California; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature recognizes the unique health, economic, and societal benefits that breastfeeding provides to babies, mothers, families, and the community as a whole and affirms that Californians should work to ensure that barriers to initiation and continuation of breastfeeding are removed; and be it further
Resolved, That the Legislature encourages Californians to work together to explore ways to improve women’s access to breastfeeding support services in medical, social, and employment settings, to facilitate increased awareness and education about breastfeeding, to explore and encourage the use of breastfeeding supports, and to improve the availability of effective breastfeeding resources and community support services; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.