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Student moms who breast-feed will get space at schools under new Illinois law

Chicago Tribune - 9/7/2017

Sept. 07--After giving birth to a baby girl last year, 18-year-old Amy Corradi juggled the responsibilities of motherhood with the typical demands of high school, making for a hectic senior year. One of the biggest challenges, she said, was breast-feeding.

Corradi, who graduated from Downers Grove South High School last spring, said it was a struggle to find the time and a private place to to pump milk at school. She would pump in an empty office during her lunch period and would sometimes skip class to fit in a meal for herself. She'd store her milk in a cooler bag in her locker and rush home at the end of the day to breast-feed her baby before engorgement set in.

"I kind of just did what I had to do," said Corradi, who continues to breast-feed daughter Breelynn, now 10 months old.

As the school year begins, districts around the state face a new mandate: to reduce barriers for breast-feeding students like Corradi and protect them from academic consequences for time spent during the school day pumping or breast-feeding.

A new state law, which was signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner last month and takes effect Jan. 1, requires public schools to provide a room -- other than a bathroom -- with an electrical outlet for nursing mothers. Students must also have access to a refrigerator to store their milk, and cannot be penalized for time away from academics because they were pumping.

Some school districts said they're already making accommodations for nursing mothers but will solidify policies to comply with the new law. The statute doesn't specify whether others, including teachers or staff, can use the nursing room available to students.

Although advocates who work with pregnant and parenting teens support the law, they note that breast-feeding struggles are just one of many obstacles teen mothers face when trying to complete their education.

State data show that breast-feeding remains an unpopular choice among young mothers, compared with women who have children well after high school. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast-feeding exclusively for the first six months, then continuing to do so with the introduction of solid foods until at least 12 months old.

While most teenage mothers at least try breast-feeding, they switch to formula in the first few weeks more often than older mothers do, according to an annual survey conducted by the CDC and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

In 2014, the most recent year available, about 53 percent of teenage mothers in Illinois were still breast-feeding one month after their babies were born, the survey shows. When their infants were 12 weeks old, just 18.6 percent of teen mothers were breast-feeding exclusively without using any formula, according to the survey. Mothers in their 20s and 30s, however, breast-fed more even as their babies grew, the data show.

That concerns state Rep. Sonya Harper, a Chicago Democrat, who proposed the new law. She said she hopes to see more young mothers make the choice to breast-feed and wants to make it easier to do so.

"We just want to make sure we have healthy babies and a supportive environment for young mothers," she said. "They have so much to worry about already."

Pat Mosena, president of Options for Youth, a Chicago nonprofit that works with pregnant and parenting teens, said support from teachers and administrators is important in promoting breast-feeding in young mothers.

But even more vital is a supportive family. A young mom isn't likely "to go against what her mother is saying," Mosena said.

Even with all the necessary support, breast-feeding as a high school student is difficult, she said. It's also just one of multiple hurdles many young mothers must face as they strive to stay in school, she said, including poverty and homelessness, coupled with with the daily grind of high school and finding child care.

"They have to overcome a lot of barriers," she said. "They have to really want to breast-feed."

Sherry Sims, who works at Options for Youth, said she can usually persuade teen mothers to breast-feed for six weeks. "Then they come back to school and they stop," she said.

A few years ago, with the support of the principal at Bogan Computer Technical High School in Chicago's Ashburn neighborhood, where Sims works three days a week as a resource for young mothers, Sims said she hung shades on her office windows and gave students access to her room to pump and store milk. That eased the process for the teens, she said, and helped as she encouraged them to breast-feed.

Ashley Anderson, the perinatal education coordinator at Teen Parent Connection in Glen Ellyn, said she consistently hears from teens that returning to school is the reason why "they've cut their breast-feeding journey short."

Becky Beilfuss, executive director of Teen Parent Connection in Glen Ellyn, said the organization's programs promote breast-feeding for reasons beyond its nutritional benefits. Breast-feeding "improves bonding between parent and child, especially with at-risk groups like teenage parents," she said.

The Illinois Association of School Boards supports the new law, said Deanna Sullivan, director of governmental relations. Schools already should be accommodating nursing mothers because it's required by the U.S. Department of Education'sOffice for Civil Rights, she said.

Jill Browning, spokeswoman at Community High School District 99, where Corradi attended high school, said staff is preparing to meet the requirements of the new law at both of its high schools. She said it's "not a huge change" from the schools' current practice.

At Elgin-based School District U-46, the state's second-largest district, the new law is prompting a formal policy for the school's five high schools and eight middle schools, said Terri Lozier, assistant superintendent for secondary schools.

The schools already have a place for students to pump and refrigerate milk, and they aren't penalized for leaving class. Now, a school board policy will formally spell that out, Lozier said. "To me, the bill is common sense. I would like to think that this is the way it's done (everywhere)."

kthayer@chicagotribune.com

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