NRS 201.232 Breastfeeding: Legislative intent; authorized in any public or private location where the mother is authorized to be.
1. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) The medical profession in the United States recommends that children from birth to the age of 1 year should be breastfed unless under particular circumstances it is medically inadvisable.
(b) Despite the recommendation of the medical profession, statistics reveal a declining percentage of mothers who are choosing to breastfeed their babies.
(c) Many new mothers are now choosing to use formula rather than to breastfeed even before they leave the hospital, and only a small percentage of all mothers are still breastfeeding when their babies are 6 months old.
(d) In addition to the benefit of improving bonding between mothers and their babies, breastfeeding offers better nutrition, digestion and immunity for babies than does formula feeding, and it may increase the intelligence quotient of a child. Babies who are breastfed have lower rates of death, meningitis, childhood leukemia and other cancers, diabetes, respiratory illnesses, bacterial and viral infections, diarrheal diseases, otitis media, allergies, obesity and developmental delays.
(e) Breastfeeding also provides significant benefits to the health of the mother, including protection against breast cancer and other cancers, osteoporosis and infections of the urinary tract. The incidence of breast cancer in the United States might be reduced by 25 percent if every woman breastfed all her children until they reached the age of 2 years.
(f) The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund have established as one of their major goals for the decade the encouragement of breastfeeding.
(g) The social constraints of modern society weigh against the choice of breastfeeding and lead new mothers with demanding time schedules to opt for formula feeding to avoid embarrassment, social ostracism or criminal prosecution.
(h) Any genuine promotion of family values should encourage public acceptance of this most basic act of nurture between a mother and her baby, and no mother should be made to feel incriminated or socially ostracized for breastfeeding her child.
2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a mother may breastfeed her child in any public or private location where the mother is otherwise authorized to be, irrespective of whether the nipple of the mother’s breast is uncovered during or incidental to the breastfeeding.
(Added to NRS by 1995, 126)
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NRS 201.210 Open or gross lewdness; penalty.
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2. For the purposes of this section, the breastfeeding of a child by the mother of the child does not constitute an act of open or gross lewdness.
[Part 1911 C&P § 195; A 1921, 112; NCL § 10142]—(NRS A 1963, 63; 1965, 1465; 1967, 476; 1973, 95, 255, 1406; 1977, 866; 1979, 1429; 1983, 206; 1991, 1008; 1995, 127, 1199, 1327; 1997, 2501, 3188)
NRS 201.220 Indecent or obscene exposure; penalty.
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2. For the purposes of this section, the breastfeeding of a child by the mother of the child does not constitute an act of open and indecent or obscene exposure of her body.
[Part 1911 C&P § 195; A 1921, 112; NCL § 10142]—(NRS A 1965, 1465; 1967, 476; 1973, 96, 255, 1406; 1977, 867; 1979, 1429; 1983, 206; 1991, 1008; 1995, 127, 1200, 1327; 1997, 2501, 3189)
Enforcement Provision
None
Workplace Pumping Law
None
Enforcement Provision
None
