Delaware just passed a law so moms in prison can send breast milk to their babies

Governor signs law for prison lactation program

Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed House Bill 3 on July 21, 2025, creating a breastfeeding and lactation program for women in state prison.

The law passed both chambers without a single “no” vote, 40-0 in the House and 21-0 in the Senate. Rep. DeShanna Neal sponsored the bill.

The program takes effect on July 21, 2026, giving the Department of Corrections (DOC) one year to set it up.

Mothers can collect and send milk

Under the new law, women in DOC custody can collect breast milk and have an approved person pick it up and deliver it to their infant or toddler. That approved person could be a family member or caregiver.

The DOC also has to provide nutrition information and meal plans designed for pregnant, postpartum, or breastfeeding women. Those meal plans must follow national best practices.

On top of that, the department must publish a yearly report on how many women use the program.

Sponsor calls it a first for Delaware

Rep. DeShanna Neal, a mother of four, pushed for the bill because she wants every mother to experience the bond of breastfeeding, no matter the circumstances.

Neal said incarcerated people are “severely underseen and understudied,” and that gap has real effects on health policy. She called the program the first of its kind in the state.

Meyer signed it alongside five other health-related bills aimed at supporting overlooked groups.

One prison houses all women inmates

The program will run out of the Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution in New Castle, Delaware’s only women’s prison.

The facility opened on Dec. 29, 1991, and holds pretrial and sentenced women at minimum, medium, and maximum security levels.

It is named after Delores J. Baylor, the first African American woman to hold a warden position in the state. Every woman in DOC custody who qualifies will access the program through this facility.

Only a handful of states have similar laws

Before Delaware’s new law, only about six states had laws specifically supporting breastfeeding for incarcerated women. California, New York, Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, and New Jersey each take different approaches.

California, for example, requires county jails to develop policies on expressing, storing, and delivering breast milk. Some states run prison nursery programs where mothers and newborns stay together.

But many states have no written policy on breastfeeding support in prisons or jails at all, according to a report from the University of Minnesota.

New York keeps mothers and babies together

New York runs the most far-reaching model in the country. The state lets breastfeeding mothers in prison live with their babies in nursery programs.

Babies can stay with their mothers until age one, or up to 18 months if the mother is close to parole. That approach stands out because it keeps parent and child in the same place.

Across the country, about 12 states offer some alternative to standard incarceration for pregnant and postpartum women, including nurseries and community-based options.

Most incarcerated mothers lose contact quickly

About 75% of women in U.S. prisons and jails are of reproductive age.

Roughly 3% to 4% of women entering the prison system are pregnant, and at least 1,000 births happen behind bars each year. In most cases, mothers are separated from their newborns shortly after delivery.

Only about a third of U.S. prisons and jails have any written policy on breastfeeding, which means the majority offer no formal support at all.

Doctors strongly recommend breastfeeding

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. The AAP also supports continuing alongside solid foods through age two or beyond.

For babies, breastfeeding lowers the risk of SIDS, respiratory and ear infections, asthma, obesity, and some forms of diabetes.

For mothers, it is linked to lower rates of breast and ovarian cancer, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. The health case is well established in medical research.

Laws alone don’t always fix the problem

Even in facilities with supportive policies, breastfeeding rates among incarcerated women stay very low. Staff and healthcare providers often don’t know the policies exist.

Mothers may not have access to breast pumps, proper storage, or education. Getting expressed milk to a baby living outside the facility adds another layer of difficulty.

Stigma around incarceration also discourages some mothers from starting or continuing to breastfeed in the first place.

Delaware locks up women at a high rate

Delaware incarcerates women at a rate of about 76 per 100,000 residents, higher than nearly every independent country in the world, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

The state releases roughly 296 women from its prisons each year. Unlike most states, Delaware runs a combined prison and jail system under the DOC.

That structure means the new lactation law covers every level of custody in the state.

Six health bills hit the books at once

House Bill 3 was one of six health-related bills Meyer signed on July 21, 2025.

The other bills addressed lead-free housing certification, protections for medical providers, and overdose awareness. Meyer said the new laws expand access to quality healthcare and give essential support to mothers.

Delaware also launched a paid family and medical leave program in January 2026, a separate but related step toward broader family support in the state.

DOC has one year to build the program

The DOC must have the breastfeeding and lactation program running by July 21, 2026. Once it launches, the department has to start collecting data on participation for its required yearly report.

Advocates across the country say laws like this one work best when paired with lactation support services, doula programs, and staff training.

Whether the program leads to real change will depend on how the DOC puts it into practice and whether the funding matches the mandate.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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