New legislation requires breastfeeding rooms in Illinois airports

A new law signed over the weekend by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner will require large airports in that state, such as Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway International airports, to have lactation rooms by 2017, the Associated Press reported.

Under the new legislation, which follows the approval of a similar proposal by the Chicago City Council committee vote on Friday, smaller Illinois airports will have to add the private rooms when building new terminals or renovating existing ones.

A Mother’s Room for traveling moms to use for breastfeeding and pumping, equipped with comfortable seating, a sink, wash area and wall-mounted TV, opened at Midway Airport in September 2014 on Concourse C, next the Yoga Room.

The ADA-compliant Mother's Room at O'Hare International Airport opened late last week on the mezzanine level of the Rotunda Area, in Terminal 3 near the Yoga Room and O'Hare's urban garden. Terminals 1, 2 and 5 at ORD are also scheduled to get Mother's Rooms before the end of the year.

Lactation facilities are becoming a popular amenity at airports, with special rooms for this purpose now at Dallas Love Field, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Nashville International Airport and elsewhere. Vermont’s Burlington International Airport, Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport, and New York’s JFK and LaGuardia airports and Liberty Newark International Airport have stand-alone lactation pods.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois is promoting the Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act, which would require large and medium airports nationwide to provide lactation rooms.

The legislation would require all large and medium hub airports in the U.S. to provide a private space in each terminal, accessible to people with disabilities, where mothers could go to express breast milk. FAM would give airports two years to comply with the legislation and allow them to use Airport Improvement Program funds for the purpose of complying with the new requirement.

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and USA TODAY Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.