Breastfeeding mothers and any guardian caring for children younger than 3 years old may be excused from jury duty across Maryland once a new state law goes into effect in October.

The measure standardizes a patchwork of local policies and specifically allows courts to excuse from jury duty women who are nursing young children. The Baltimore Banner last year revealed a litany of inconveniences, indignities and poor timing that made jury service for young mothers close to unbearable.

Some said they’d never left their newborns or given their babies a bottle until they were summoned and required to serve. Others recalled how the mandate left them struggling to find child care.

In Baltimore under a 2022 city law, courthouses started to accommodate young mothers by adding lactation rooms. But at the same time, the city court system made it tougher by reducing the amount of time the mothers could put off their jury duty, to six months from a year.

The new state law, however, creates a single policy governing all jurisdictions, though local judges or judicial commissioners will still have the power to reject parents’ requests if they believe it is warranted.

The law also requires all courts to have lactation rooms with door locks, sinks and refrigerators, as well as provide an annual accounting of how many parents request deferments from jury duty.

In a statement Thursday, the Maryland Judiciary said it will inform its courts of the new requirements.

Del. Robbyn Lewis, a Baltimore Democrat and sponsor of the bill, credited her colleagues in the chamber from the city who helped shepherd the legislation, and highlighted the efforts of local advocate Rachel Wagner, who worked with lawmakers and marshaled women to tell “harrowing” stories.

“The problem was bureaucracy run amok, with a patchwork of rules all around the state that left some localities treating nursing/breastfeeding parents more respectfully humanely than others,” Lewis said.

She said the law was “one of the most meaningful bills I’ve sponsored in my eight-year career.”