BILL NUMBER: SB 502	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senators Pavley and De León

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2011

   An act to add Section 123366 to the Health and Safety Code,
relating to public health.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 502, as introduced, Pavley. Hospital Infant Feeding Protection
Act.
   Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health
facilities, including hospitals, by the State Department of Public
Health. Existing law requires all general acute care hospitals and
special hospitals providing maternity care to make available a
breast-feeding consultant, or alternatively, to provide information
to the mother on where to receive breast-feeding information.
   This bill would require all general acute care hospitals and
special hospitals that have perinatal units, as defined, to have an
infant-feeding policy and to clearly post that policy. This bill
would require that the infant-feeding policy be routinely
communicated to all perinatal unit staff and that the infant-feeding
policy apply to all infants in a perinatal unit. This bill would
become operative January 1, 2014.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) A growing body of evidence indicates that early infant feeding
practices can affect later growth and development, particularly with
regard to obesity.
   (b) Parents and care providers are advised to learn and use health
infant feeding practices, especially for bottle feeding.
   (c) The United States Surgeon General, and all the major health
organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics and World
Health Organization, recommend exclusive breastfeeding for most
babies, unless specifically contraindicated, for the first six months
and continued breastfeeding with the addition of appropriate foods
up to at least one year of age.
   (d) The United States Healthy People 2020 goals for breastfeeding
set new targets for decreased formula supplementation within the
first two days of life and increased number of births in facilities
that provide recommended lactation care.
   (e) The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitor
hospital practices at the state and national level with the
Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC) survey.
Whereas mPINC benchmarks suggest that 10 percent or fewer of
breastfeeding infants should receive supplemental formula, fewer than
10 percent of California hospitals reach that goal. In eight
California hospitals, at least 90 percent of breast-fed infants are
given supplemental formula during the hospital stay.
   (f) In April 2010, the Joint Commission, the accreditation
organization for hospitals, began including exclusive breastfeeding
rates as part of its perinatal care core evaluation indicators for
maternity hospitals.
  SEC. 2.  Section 123366 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
   123366.  (a) This section shall be known, and may be cited as, the
Hospital Infant Feeding Protection Act.
   (b) For the purposes of this section, "perinatal unit" means a
maternity or newborn service of the hospital for the provision of
care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postpartum and neonatal
periods with appropriate staff, space, equipment, and supplies.
   (c) All general acute care hospitals and special hospitals, as
defined in subdivisions (a) and (f) of Section 1250, that have a
perinatal unit shall have an infant-feeding policy and shall clearly
post that policy.
   (d) The infant-feeding policy shall be routinely communicated to
all perinatal unit staff.
   (e) The infant-feeding policy shall apply to all infants in a
perinatal unit.
   (f) This section shall become operative January 1, 2014.