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Breastfeeding women who are traveling and need to nurse children or pump excess breast milk will be able to retreat from crowds like this at Newark Liberty International Airport to private lactation "pods" being installed there and LaGuardia Airport before Mother's Day, May 10. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media)

(Ed Murray/Star-Ledger file photo)

NEWARK — Lactation rooms for breastfeeding women to nurse children or pump breast milk will be arriving in time for Mother's Day at the region's airports.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey plans to introduce the free-standing lactation "pods" in Terminal B at Liberty Newark International Airport and in LaGuardia Airport's Central Terminal Building, sometime before the May 10 moms' tribute, said an agency spokeswoman, Cheryl Albiez.

Initially, there will be a single pod at each of the two airports, though others will be added, Albiez said. The pods will be available to airport workers and the public.

Terminals at John F. Kennedy International Airport are operated by individual airlines, and Albiez said it would be up to them to install lactation areas.

The "pods," which are free-standing booths about the size of a car and provide cushioned bench seating, are designed by Mamava, a Vermont-based company that promotes breastfeeding. The pods offer nursing mothers "a safe, clean, functional, and beautifully designed space to pump/nurse when they are away from home or at work," according to the company's website.

Plans to install the pods at Newark and LaGuardia were first reported by USA Today.

Under the Affordable Care Act, employers are required to provide, "a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from coworkers and the public, which may be used by an employee to express breast milk." However, Albiez said the pods were being installed in response to flier's requests.

A survey conducted for the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine in November found that only 8 of 100 airports surveyed met requirements of the law. Breastfeeding mothers need to pump excess milk to avoid pain or discomfort.



The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends breast feeding infants exclusively for the first six months of their lives, and continued supplemental breastfeeding as other foods are introduced to the infant's diet.

New Jersey has lagged behind the rest of the country in the rates that mothers breast feed. A 2013 report by the Centers for Disease Control found that 71.5 percent of Garden State mothers with infant children breast-fed them regularly, below the national rate of 76.5 percent.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow hin on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.