House gives nod to breast-milk bill

Legislation that would prompt the Department of Health to establish standards for the distribution of human breast milk passed the House on Monday.

Arkansas does not have an established human milk bank, leaving mothers who either cannot produce milk for their babies, or mothers who produce too much milk, to use informal "sharing" networks, often through social media, or to use costlier out-of-state milk banks, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported last year.

[RELATED: Complete Democrat-Gazette coverage of the Arkansas Legislature]

House Bill 1176 is intended to set minimum standards for such programs and to encourage nonprofits to launch depositories and banks for human breast milk, said state Rep. Aaron Pilkington, R-Clarksville, the sponsor of the legislation.

Pilkington said Monday that he first considered establishing a state-sponsored milk bank but abandoned that idea after determining it would cost about $1.5 million.

His legislation passed the House by a 94-0 vote Monday, moving the bill to the Senate.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2018 Breastfeeding Report Card, 73.8 percent of infants born in 2015 were breast-fed at some point, though only 20.4 percent were breast-fed exclusively through six months, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Nationally, 24.9 percent of babies born in 2015 were exclusively breast-fed through six months.

-- John Moritz

A Section on 02/05/2019

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