New guidance was released Monday, for the first time in 30 years, to give employers a better idea of how to accommodate pregnant employees.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released the information to clarify pregnancy discrimination laws, which were last addressed in 1983, according to Al Jazeera.

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was first passed in 1978, as an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and required employers to treat pregnant workers the same as anyone with a similar job limitation. It applied to companies with at least 15 employees.

"Too many courts have read the 1978 law inappropriately narrowly," Emily Martin, vice president and general counsel at the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), told Al Jazeera. The EEOC's new guidance "talks about all of the key areas where we continue to see pregnancy discrimination."

A public hearing about continuous violations of the law took place in 2012.

The new guidelines cover discrimination against employee pregnancies in the present, past and future, and require employers to give workers adequate accommodations both in time and space.

Employers are required to allow an employee to work if they are able, even if pregnant, and parental leave policies apply to both men and women.

In addition, lactation and breast-feeding are viewed as medical conditions related to pregnancy, and are therefore protected.

One of the biggest debates in 2010 was about new mothers being given time and space to pump their breasts, using the breaks given to smokers as an equivalent example.

In February 2010, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include a reasonable break time for employees to pump their breasts for up to one year after giving birth, and included specifications for employers to ensure this is done in a place other than a bathroom that is shielded from coworkers and the public, according to a New York Times blog.

The number of discrimination complaints has risen 46 percent in the past 14 years, 3,977 filed in 1997 to 5,797 in 2011, according to Al Jazeera.

"So many of them involve incredibly blatant discrimination," said Peggy Mastroianni, legal counsel at the EEOC.

The EEOC said the changes have been in the works for years.