Your breastfeeding rights: at work and in any public place

The Lactation Code is the law gathering, in one body, Puerto Rico’s public policy and breastfeeding rights: the right to breastfeed in public places, the lactation or milk-expression period at work (public sector and private companies), mandatory lactation rooms in public entities, shopping centers and public-serving locations, ports and airports, public schools and the UPR, the prohibition of discrimination against breastfeeding mothers, and even the jury-duty exemption for a breastfeeding woman, with medical evidence. It repealed and replaced, among others, Act 427-2000 (the workplace lactation period), Act 155-2002 (rooms in public entities) and Act 95-2004 (discrimination). If you knew any lactation rule "from the old law", verify: it lives here now.

The right to breastfeed in public or publicly frequented private places belongs to every mother, with no procedure at all. The workplace lactation period applies to working mothers returning to their duties after maternity leave, in government and private companies alike, full-time or part-time, and requires no medical certification. It lasts at least 12 months from the return to work; the employer may grant more. The jury exemption applies to any breastfeeding woman who requests it with medical evidence certifying it.

• For the workplace period: having returned to your duties after enjoying maternity leave.Verified against the official source
• Requesting it from the employer: the employer must guarantee the right to the nursing mother "who so requests", and agree the schedule with you, which afterward cannot change without both parties’ express consent.Verified against the official source
• You need no medical certification to use the lactation or milk-expression period: the Code says so expressly.Verified against the official source

• For the workplace period: none. The law expressly exempts you from presenting medical certification to the employer.
• For the jury-duty exemption: medical evidence certifying the breastfeeding; the court must grant the request without undue delay.

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   Step 1: Request the period and agree the schedule

   Upon returning from maternity leave, request the lactation or milk-expression period from your employer. The law sets the floor: the time cannot total less than one hour per work shift, and that applies equally whether you work full-time or part-time. It is used to go breastfeed your child — if the employer has a childcare center on its premises — or to express milk in the space set up at your workplace. Once the schedule is agreed, neither party changes it without the other’s express consent.

2. 2

   Step 2: That time is paid as worked

   The period counts as time worked: no nursing mother may see her salary reduced for exercising these rights. Nor can they ask you to "make up" the time: the law expressly prohibits requiring repayment of the time used as a pernicious action against the employee.

3. 3

   Step 3: Count the 12 months from your return

   The lactation or expression period lasts at least 12 months within the workplace, counted from your return to duties — not from the birth. The employer may grant a longer term (in government, also by agreement or regulation, and in unionized workplaces the collective agreement can improve these rights, never reduce them).

4. 4

   Step 4: Breastfeed wherever you are, without asking permission

   Outside work, every mother has the right to breastfeed in any public or private place frequented by the public or serving as recreation. Denying you services, restricting, segregating or limiting you for breastfeeding is a prohibited discriminatory practice; whoever does it commits a misdemeanor with a fine of at least $1,000. Shopping centers and public-serving locations must have lactation areas with real privacy: no cameras, covered windows, a locking door and water access — but the room’s existence is never a prerequisite for you to breastfeed wherever you prefer.

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   Step 5: If your rights are violated: Women’s Advocate and court

   Anyone who believes a Code right was violated can file a claim before the Women’s Advocate Office, which together with the Department of Labor can investigate complaints and impose fines under Act 20-2001. There is also the civil action in court: the violator’s liability for damages and mental anguish is double the amount determined, with concurrent jurisdiction between the court and the Advocate.

The lactation period is requested directly from the employer; there is no agency filing. Complaints for violations go to the Women’s Advocate Office or the Department of Labor and Human Resources, and the civil action, to court.

• Citing Act 427-2000: it was repealed August 1, 2025. The rights now live in the Lactation Code (Act 87-2025), with changes — among them, the minimum hour applies equally to part-time work.
• Accepting less than an hour per shift for working part-time: the Code expressly equates the part-time employee with the full-time one.
• Presenting medical certification because the employer asks: the law says you are not obligated to present it.
• Agreeing to "make up" lactation time at the end of the shift: time repayment is listed as a prohibited pernicious action.
• Counting the 12 months from the baby’s birth: they count from your return to work.
• Believing you can only breastfeed in the lactation room: rooms are an obligation of establishments, not a limit on you.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de la Procuradora de las Mujeres (OPM)

  Procuradora de las Mujeres

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov