Bill Text: CA ACR234 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2018.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-3)
Status: (Passed) 2018-09-06 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Res. Chapter 200, Statutes of 2018. [ACR234 Detail]
Download: California-2017-ACR234-Chaptered.html
| Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 234 |
| CHAPTER 200 |
Relative to Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2018.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 06, 2018.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACR 234, Rubio.
Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2018.
This measure would proclaim August 2018 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2018 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.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee: NOBill Text
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, 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 six months of age and continue to be breastfed until 12 months of age or longer as mutually desired; and
WHEREAS, Only 24.8 percent of California infants are still exclusively breastfeeding at six months of age; 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, Recent research estimates that upwards of $18.5 billion in health care and premature death-related expenses could be saved each year if 90 percent of women were to meet breastfeeding recommendations; 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 Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the month of August 2018 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month of 2018 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 Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
