The Black Lactation Bill of Rights

A Declaration of Dignity, Autonomy, Equity, and Access

Our bodies. Our babies. Our choices. Our rights.

Affirming the dignity, autonomy, access, and care Black families deserve throughout lactation and infant feeding.

Preamble

Black families have always nourished, protected, and cared for their children. Yet their lactation and infant-feeding experiences have been shaped by generations of reproductive oppression, medical racism, exploitation of Black women’s reproductive and lactation labor, inequitable access to healthcare, and systems that have too often disregarded their autonomy, knowledge, concerns, and lived experiences.

These histories continue to shape present-day experiences of pregnancy, birth, postpartum care, lactation, and infant feeding.

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights affirms what Black families should be able to expect from the healthcare systems, workplaces, childcare settings, institutions, providers, and communities that influence their feeding journeys.

These rights are grounded in the belief that every Black family deserves the information, resources, protections, and care necessary to make and carry out informed feeding decisions with dignity and autonomy.

A right to lactation care is not an obligation to lactate. Black families have the right to breastfeed, chestfeed, pump, combination feed, use donor milk, use formula, wean, or change their feeding plans without coercion, shame, or judgment.

These rights are not privileges. They reflect the care, respect, autonomy, and humanity Black families have always deserved.

Honoring the Inspiration Behind This Work

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights is grounded in The Obsidian Milk Collective’s framework of Lactation Justice and inspired by the Black Birthing Bill of Rights, developed by the National Association to Advance Black Birth (NAABB).

We honor NAABB’s work to affirm the rights of Black women and birthing people and to challenge healthcare systems, providers, institutions, and policymakers to create maternity care rooted in dignity, autonomy, respect, and equity.

OMC carries that inspiration into lactation and infant feeding, recognizing that the need for respectful, equitable, and culturally responsive care does not end at birth.

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights applies a rights-based lens across the feeding journey, from pregnancy and birth through postpartum, healthcare, work, childcare, separation, weaning, and beyond.

  • Make informed decisions about lactation and infant feeding without coercion, pressure, shame, or judgment, including the right to breastfeed, chestfeed, pump, combination feed, use donor milk, use formula, wean, or change feeding plans as their needs and circumstances evolve.

  • Receive lactation care that honors their race, culture, identity, family structure, values, lived experience, and individual feeding goals.

  • Receive accurate, complete, understandable, and evidence-based information about lactation and infant feeding so they can make informed decisions about their care.

  • Access qualified lactation professionals who can appropriately assess concerns, provide evidence-based care, recognize when needs extend beyond their scope, and make appropriate referrals when additional care is needed.

  • Access lactation care regardless of income, insurance status, geography, transportation, disability, or other barriers that may otherwise prevent them from receiving timely care.

  • Receive lactation care that extends beyond pregnancy and hospital discharge, with appropriate follow-up, referrals, and pathways to community-based care throughout the feeding journey.

  • Have their pain, concerns, observations, feeding goals, and knowledge of their own bodies and babies taken seriously, not dismissed, minimized, stereotyped, or ignored.

  • Have their privacy, bodily autonomy, informed consent, and dignity respected during lactation assessment, education, breast or chest examination, milk expression, feeding assistance, and other aspects of care.

  • Receive appropriate lactation care, information, and resources when separated from their infant because of NICU admission, hospitalization, incarceration, foster care, immigration-related circumstances, military service, employment, or other forms of separation.

  • Have the time, privacy, accommodations, and protections necessary to express milk or pursue their feeding goals at work or school without jeopardizing employment, education, income, or economic security.

  • Have expressed human milk safely accepted, stored, handled, and provided by childcare and educational settings, with feeding plans respected and families supported in continuing their chosen feeding practices.

  • Receive compassionate, informed lactation care following pregnancy loss, infant loss, abortion, adoption, surrogacy, or other reproductive experiences that may involve lactation, milk production, suppression, donation, or weaning.

  • Receive lactation care that respects gender identity, language, family structure, parenting roles, and the many ways families may experience pregnancy, birth, lactation, and infant feeding.

  • Change feeding goals, supplement, combination feed, introduce formula, wean, discontinue lactation, or make other feeding decisions without shame, coercion, or being treated as though they have failed.

  • Have lactation recognized as part of maternal and infant healthcare, with meaningful coordination among lactation professionals, obstetric providers, pediatric providers, primary care professionals, mental health professionals, and other members of the care team when appropriate.

  • Expect healthcare systems, insurers, employers, childcare settings, institutions, policymakers, and professionals to examine and address policies and practices that create barriers to equitable lactation care.

  • Access trusted community-based lactation care, peer support, education, and resources that strengthen connection, belonging, and continuity beyond traditional healthcare settings.

  • Benefit from systems that make lactation care financially accessible without depending on the unpaid or unsustainable labor of the professionals and community organizations providing that care.

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights

Every Black family has the right to:

What These Rights Require

Rights are meaningful only when the systems surrounding families respect, protect, and make it possible to exercise them.

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights is not only a resource for Black families. It is also a call to the healthcare systems, professionals, insurers, employers, childcare providers, institutions, policymakers, and community organizations whose decisions shape lactation and infant-feeding experiences.

Honoring these rights requires:

  • Healthcare systems and providers to deliver respectful, evidence-based, culturally responsive care; protect informed consent and bodily autonomy; recognize and address bias; and create meaningful pathways to lactation care before and after hospital discharge.

  • Insurers and payers to recognize lactation care as healthcare and provide meaningful, accessible coverage for the services and resources families need.

  • Employers and educational institutions to protect the time, privacy, accommodations, and economic security necessary for people to pursue their lactation and feeding goals.

  • Childcare providers and settings to safely support expressed human milk, respect family feeding plans, and remove unnecessary barriers that interfere with continued lactation.

  • Policymakers and government institutions to create, fund, enforce, and evaluate policies that protect lactating families and address inequities in access to care.

  • Lactation professionals and community organizations to practice with humility, respect family autonomy, remain accountable to the communities they serve, and build care that is accessible, responsive, and sustainable.

Black families should not carry the responsibility of overcoming systems that were not designed with their needs, experiences, or realities in mind.

The responsibility for protecting these rights belongs to all of us who shape the conditions in which families feed, parent, work, receive care, and live.

Putting the Rights Into Practice

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights is not intended to live only on a webpage. These rights should shape how care is provided, programs are designed, partnerships are built, and systems are held accountable.

At The Obsidian Milk Collective, these rights inform how we:

  • Provide care that respects autonomy, dignity, informed decision-making, culture, identity, and individual feeding goals.

  • Expand access by identifying and reducing financial, insurance, geographic, transportation, and other barriers that can prevent families from receiving timely lactation care.

  • Educate and equip families with evidence-based information about lactation, infant feeding, their options, and their rights.

  • Build community by creating spaces where Black families can connect, share experiences, access trusted resources, and be supported without judgment.

  • Develop partnerships with healthcare providers, birth workers, community organizations, and institutions that can strengthen pathways to respectful and responsive care.

  • Advocate for systems change by identifying policies and practices that create inequity and working toward solutions that make lactation care more accessible, accountable, and sustainable.

  • Listen and remain accountable to the families and communities at the center of our work, allowing their experiences to inform how our programs, priorities, and advocacy evolve.

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights is both an affirmation and a standard.

It names what Black families deserve, and challenges all of us, including OMC, to build the conditions in which those rights can be fully realized.

These Rights Belong to Black Families

The Black Lactation Bill of Rights names what should never have to be earned, negotiated, or proven: dignity, autonomy, respect, access, informed choice, and equitable care.

These rights belong to Black families throughout pregnancy, birth, lactation, infant feeding, and every transition their journeys may hold.

Naming these rights is only the beginning.

The work of Lactation Justice is creating the conditions in which they can be exercised, protected, and sustained.

Black families deserve more than the right to choose. They deserve the conditions that make meaningful choice possible.