Requires human breast milk banks, companies and cooperatives to comply with certain standards and provides for education and support of certain breastfeeding mothers

1. Procuring, processing, storing, distributing and using human milk for the purpose of infant human consumption from a nonprofit human breast milk bank is a rendering of a service and not the sale of human milk for profit or financial gain.

2. A hospital or organization that collects, processes, stores, or distributes human milk either from a mother exclusively for her own child or from a mother to nourish a child other than her own shall comply with the standards, ethical practices and guidelines for collecting, processing, storing, or distributing human milk of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America unless the department approves alternate standards.

3. No screening test is required to be performed on human milk collected from a mother exclusively for her own child.

4. A for-profit human breast milk bank, company, or cooperative that provides financial compensation or shares in stock for procuring, processing, distributing, or using human milk for the purpose of human consumption must comply with the standards, ethical practices and guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America or more stringent guidelines for safe procurement, processing, storing, or distribution of human breast milk.

5. (a) A for-profit human breast milk bank, company, or cooperative working with breastfeeding mothers in this state can only accept milk from a mother who is at least one hundred and eighty days postpartum. (b) A for-profit human breast milk bank, company, or cooperative operating in this state cannot remit payment to a participating mother until at least twenty-eight days after receipt and acceptance of the expressed human breast milk.

6. A for-profit human breast milk bank, company, or cooperative shall work with local, community-based lactation support groups to provide ongoing breastfeeding education and lactation support for its participating mothers to ensure that the needs of the nursing children of participating mothers are the priority and are adequately nourished by the mother's own breast milk.

7. A for-profit human breast milk bank, company, or cooperative operating in this state shall ensure that, at a minimum, fifty percent of the human breast milk produced by participating mothers in a specific locality is distributed to hospitals in this state for the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit or to local nonprofit human breast milk banks to provide human breast milk for vulnerable premature or ill infants or for distribution to foster parents or adoptive parents in this state who wish to provide breast milk for their foster or adoptive newborn or infant children.

8. A for-profit human breast milk bank operating in this state shall conduct an annual audit, at its own expense, that clearly demonstrates whether or not the distribution of breast milk collected complies with the requirements of subdivision six of this section. The for-profit human breast milk bank shall submit a report with the findings of the audit to the department no later than January thirty-first, two thousand seventeen and every January thirty-first annually thereafter.

9. A for-profit human breast milk bank that does not comply with the provisions of subdivision eight of this section shall be responsible for a fine to be determined by the commissioner. The comptroller shall credit the money from such fines to the department for use in infant mortality prevention projects.

10. The provisions of this section shall not apply to mother-to-mother milk sharing groups.

Justification

Currently there is not a regulatory, educational, nor lactation support system for breast milk banks established by the State of New York. The regulation of human breast milk banks is critical to ensure the availability, quality control, and auditing of human breast milk. An educational mechanism is critical to ensure that the public is properly informed about the benefits that breast milk provides for the human growth and developmental benefits of infants throughout the development of the first few years of a young child's life. An educational mechanism is also critical to ensure proper methods of providing human breast milk to such children by means of direct breast feeding or nursing, wet nursing, collection and bottle feeding, schedule and timing of feeding, and any other necessary information regarding the use of, acquiring of, distribution of, and ingestion of human breast milk for infants throughout the optimal period for which such human breast milk is beneficial for optimal growth and development of infants and young children. A support system is critical to ensuring the proper and optimal practice of breast feeding or nursing, as well as encouraging and providing support for nursing mothers, breast milk providers, and surrogate parents who provide breast milk from breast milk banks to their foster, guardianship, or adopted child.

Prior legislative history

None

Fiscal implications

To be determined

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the date upon which it shall have become a law.