Reasonable break time for nursing mothers: a provision enacted through the Affordable Care Act.

On March 23, 2010 President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which included an amendment to Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This amendment requires employers to provide reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth, each time the employee has a need to do so. Employers are also required to provide a place, other than a bathroom, shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk. Some elements of the “reasonable break time law” are listed in Table 1.