Brooklyn Beep Eric Adams Advocates Breastfeeding Bill

“A baby does not arrive in the delivery room with an instruction manual,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams

Adams, as part of his recent initiative to encourage breastfeeding in New York City, was speaking at the Brooklyn Hospital Center on May 6 to champion a bill co-sponsored by Council Member Laurie Cumbo, to require every municipal building to have a lactation lounge open during public business hours.

“We also have to create resources, such as a lactation room in every government building, which I have proposed, that will allow mothers to nourish their newborn and infant children, pump milk when they are not with their babies, and build that emotional connection that breastfeeding creates,” added Adams.

Only 14 out of every 100 mothers in New York City breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of their baby’s life, according to a 2011 study by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Moreover, that number declines to five percent amongst low-income mothers.

The hospitals involved in the initiative are Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center, New York Methodist Hospital, NYC Health+Hospitals/Coney Island, NYC Health+Hospitals/Kings County, NYC Health+Hospitals/Woodhull, NYU Lutheran Medical Center, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, The Brooklyn Hospital Center, and Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

“The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center recommends that mothers exclusively breastfeed infants for the child’s first six months to achieve optimal growth, development and health,” said Dr. Ralph L. Ruggiero, chair of the Department of obstetrics and gynecology at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. “Thereafter, they should be given nutritious, complementary foods and continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years or beyond.