Resource Library

The Family Medical Leave Act

• The FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) Protections (Break Time for Nursing Mothers, and PUMP Act)

Most nursing employees have the right to reasonable break time and a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view to express breast milk while at work. This right is available for up to one year after the child's birth.

This is a federal law, though some states have their own. the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act recently passed to expand the limited FSLA protections.

The PUMP Act builds on the Break Time for Nursing Mothers Act (the break time law), passed in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The PUMP Act amends and expands that legislation to provide workplace protections to nearly 9 million additional breastfeeding employees who were not previously covered under the ACA and makes available enforcement mechanisms that were not included in the 2010 law.

United States Breastfeeding Committee

• An independent nonprofit organization whose mission is to drive collaborative efforts for policy and practices that create a landscape of breastfeeding support across the United States.

National Partnership for Women & Families

• A national, non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to change policy and culture.

Report: The Role of Law and Policy in Assisting Families to Reach Healthy People’s Maternal, Infant, and Child Health Breastfeeding Goals in the United States

Maternity Policy

• ABM’s Model Maternity Policy Supportive of Breastfeeding (Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, 2018)

Supplementation Policy

• ABM’s Supplementation Policy (Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, 2017)

• MMC’s Supplementary Feedings in the Term Breastfed Neonate (excluding NICU) (Maine Medical Center, Oct 2018)

Pasteurized Donor Human Milk Policy

• MMC’s Use of Pasteurized Donor Human Milk Policy on the Mother Baby Care Unit (Maine Medical Center, Nov 2018)

Newborn Hypoglycemia

• Guidelines for Glucose Monitoring and Treatment of Hypoglycemia in Term and Late Preterm Neonates, Revised 2021 (ABM Clinical Protocol #1)

• Newborn Hypoglycemia Algorithm for Newborns >36wks in the first 24hrs after delivery (MaineHealth’s Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital (BBCH))

• Prenatal Hand Expression (University of Rochester Medicine)

Maine Paid Family Leave

• A group of partners who work together to create comprehensive system change related to paid family and medical leave, and to implement a system that works for all Mainers.

Fact Sheet: The State of Paid Family and Medical Leave in the U.S. in 2023

• This fact sheet provides an overview of paid family and medical leave laws in the United States.

Mainers for Working Families

• A nonprofit organization that advocates for good health care, fair taxes, and policies that will grow opportunities to help families thrive.

Family Values @ Work

• A national network of 27 state and local coalitions helping spur the growing movement for family-friendly workplace policies such as paid sick days and family leave insurance which will result in better individual and public health, and greater financial security for families, businesses and the nation.

A Better Balance: National Non-profit Advocacy Organization for Workers

• A national nonprofit advocacy organization, uses the power of the law to advance justice for workers, so they can care for themselves and their loved ones without jeopardizing their economic security.