HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution 338-2017RESOLUTION NO. 338 - 2017
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY, FLORIDA
RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF BREASTFEEDING
IN ACCORDANCE WITH FLORIDA STATE LAWS AND
STATUTES.
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 an infant's life and continue to be breastfed until
12 months of age or longer as mutually desired; 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, and
recommended methods in which families, communities, employers, and health care professionals
could help eliminate those barriers to improve breastfeeding rates and increase support for
breastfeeding; and
WHEREAS, the breastfeeding of a baby is an important and basic act of nurture which
must be encouraged in the interests of maternal and child health and family values; and
WHEREAS, a mother may breastfeed her baby in any location, public or private, where
the mother is otherwise authorized to be; and
WHEREAS, the health benefits to breastfed children and their mothers, results in lower
health care costs for employers, less employee time off to care for sick children, and higher
productivity and employee loyalty; 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, 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 BOARD OF COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS OF MONROE COUNTY FLORIDA that Monroe County does hereby
recognize the unique health, economic, and societal benefits that breastfeeding provides to babies,
mothers, families, and the community and affirms that barriers to initiation and continuation of
breastfeeding should be removed. Monroe County encourages employers to strongly support and
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encourage breastfeeding by striving to provide accommodations of appropriate space and time to
allow employees to express their milk.
PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Board of County Commissioners of Monroe County,
Florida, at a regular meeting of said Board held on the 14 day of November, 2017.
Mayor David Rice
Yes
Mayor Pro Tern Sylvia J. Murphy Yes
Commissioner Danny L. Kolhage Yes
Commissioner George Neugent Yes
Commissioner Heather Carruthers Yes
K, CLERK
Deputy Clerk
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF MONROE COUN Y, FLORIDA
By:
May /Chairman
MONROE COUNTY ATTORNEY
APPR 13�AORM:
RGISERIf B- SHILLINGER, JR.
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