 Mother-Friendly Workplace
Initiative Action Folder
Promoting the Rights of Working Women to
Breastfeed
World
Breastfeeding Week (WBW) offers an opportunity for people worldwide to
join together in celebration and action in support of breastfeeding. In
1992, the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) launched the
first World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) on the theme of the Baby-Friendly
Hospital Initiative. Over 70 countries have recognised the importance of
breastfeeding, and have established baby-friendly hospitals! in 1993, WBW
focuses on the rights of working women to
breastfeed.
According
to the Innocenti Declaration, all women should be enabled to practise
exclusive breastfeeding and all infants should be fed exclusively on
breastmilk from 4-6 months of age. Therefter, children should continue to
be breastfed, while receiving appropriate and adequate complementary
foods, for up to two years of age or
beyond.
It is a
particular challenge to assist working women to practise optimal
breastfeeding. The goals are to:
- enable
women to breastfeed with confidence by informing them of the benefits of
optimal breastfeeding and of their maternity
entitlements;
- ensure
that national legislation to protect the rights of working women to
breastfeed is implemented in as many countries as
possible;
- increase public awareness of the rights of working women to
breastfeed, and of the benefits of combining work and breastfeeding to
women, children, and society at large;
- have
trade unions demand maternity rights and support women workers who
breastfeed; establish as many Mother-Friendly Workplaces as
possible;
- protect
cultural practices which support the breastfeeding mother working at or
away from home.
Make these your
goals! To succeed in these goals we need a new way of thinking about work.
In many societies, work has been seen from a male perspective and valued
only if it produced a cash income. When much of women’s work was
home-based, or for subsistence, that work was under-reported, under-valued
and under-paid. When women also work for a cash income, their workplaces
seldome accommodate their reproductive work, including child-care and
breastfeeding. We must create a woman-centred approach to work that values
women’s productive and reproductive work and reduces the double and triple
burden women carry. A woman-centred approach to work acknowledges
child-care and breastfeeding as socially meaningful and productive work,
and recognises the social supports necessary for optimal
breastfeeding.
With the
right supports such as maternity leaves, affordable child-care and access
to infants during working hours, women can successfully combine
breastfeeding with other work. Children, women, families and employers all
benefit from this health promoting, inexpensive, nurturing approach to
child-care.
Building on Success: Working Women Can and Do
Breastfeed!
In
Uruguay, workers in the public sector are allowed to work half-time in
order that they may breastfeed during the baby’s first six months. They
receive 100% of their salary.
Groups
such as "Maria Liberacion" in Central Mexico have supported domestic
workers to negotiate better arrangements during and after pregnancy, so
that these women can also breastfeed.
In
Mozambique, women working in a cashew nut processing plant work near to a
creche where they can breastfeed their babies twice a day. They work in
pairs to offer mutual support. Their babies have been found to be far
healthier than bottle-fed babies.
Some large
corporations provide generous maternity benefits packages to women
executives in order to retain these highly trained and valued
employees.
Construction sites in India and Thailand provide mobile creches
for women working at the sites.
Why
Should Working Women Breastfeed?
Benefits for children:
- Breastfeeding meets children’s nutritional and emotional needs,
including into the second year as part of the weaning
diet.
- Breastfed children have stronger immune systems and are
healthier than children who do not receive
breastmilk.
- Studies
show that increased breastfeeding can save the lives of over 1 million
children who presently die every year from diarrhoea and acute
respiratory infections.
Benefits for
Women:
- Breastfeeding encourages women’s self-reliance, Women become
more self-confident when they breastfeed.
- Breastfeeding protect womens’ health.
- Breastfeeding women may be less likely to develop breast and
ovarian cancers.
Benefits for
Families:
- Breastfeeding mothers are less like to become pregnant. The
continued contraceptive effect of breastfeeding is particularly
important for women for whom contraception is unavailable, unaffordable
or unacceptable.
- Breastfeeding saves families money that would be spent on
bottle- feeding.
Benefits for
Employers:
- Breastfeeding women are less likely to be absent from work to
tend to a sick baby.
- Breastfeeding women are more likely to return to work, enabling
employers to keep trained, experienced and motivated
workers.
- Breastfeeding women have a higher morale and loyalty to the
employer.
Environmental
Benefits:
- Breastfeeding uses renewable resources and does not produce
solid wastes. As more women breastfeed, workplaces will have to take
increased responsibility in making workplaces
safe.
Economic
Benefits:
- Infant
formula and feeding bottles do not have to be purchased. A major
hospital in Honduras practising breastfeeding saves about US$14,500
annually. breastfed babies stay much healthier and hence incur less
medical cost on illness.
Obstacles Working
Women Face in Breastfeeding Over the past three years, governments through
United Nations have affirmed the importance and benefits of breastfeeding
to infants, mothers and society at large. In three key
documents:
- Innocenti
Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of
Breastfeeding, 1 August 1990;
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (September
1990);
- and
Declaration of the World Summit on Children, (30 September
1990),
Governments have, thereby, stated the right of
infants and mothers to exclusive breastfeeding; the right of women to
correct and consistent information and support in child health and
nutrition; and the right of children to protection and
development.
These UN
documents, together with the maternity legislation
of the ILO, recognise the rights of working mothers to breastfeed
their infants. But, in practice, women employed in various work
environments face many different obstacles to breastfeeding. For
instance:
- maternity leave may only be available to formally employed women
on annual or permanent contracts, or only for women working in the
public sector; agricultural workers and women working in the informal
sector in many countries are not covered by any policies or legal
protection;
- many
employers do not want women workers to be hampered by family
responsibilities;
- if
costs for leave and day care are borne by the employers alone, they will
prefer to hire male workers;
- the
lack of workplace day care or transportation to community-based or
home-based day care and no guaranteed job security will hinder
possibilities for breastfeeding, even when maternity leave is
available;
- demands
for pay equity, permanent contracts, or adequate working conditions
often take priority over lactation rights such as nursing breaks or day
care;
- women
workers do not often play a significant role in decision making in
unions;
- they
lack representation in policy-making groups, and have time constraints
for trade union activities if they have
children;
- day
care facilities and nursing breaks may be available in large companies,
but not in small companies where most women
work;
- male-oriented attitudes of government and employers do not see
maternity entitlements as an investment in the health of society, but
rather as doing a favour to women;
- national socio-economic conditions (eg. unequal distribution of
wealth, poverty, heavy debt financing) leave little resources for health
care services necessary to support
breastfeeding;
- the
overall low social status of women in many countries gives lower
priority to their needs.
Action
Ideas
For
working women:
- Raise
the issue of breastfeeding at your trade union meeting or at a women’s
group.
- Form a
mother support group at your workplace to exchange practical information
on breastfeeding techniques and management.
For employers:
- Follow
"Ten Steps to Creating a Mother-Friendly
Workplace".
- Seek
innovative child-care solutions including home- based
child-care.
For
unions:
- Develop
co-operative child-care programmes at work.
- Ensure
that child-care workers are supportive and knowledgable about
breastfeeding.
- Demand
a clean, safe working environment, especially for breastfeeding
mothers.
- Lobby
for adequate paid maternity leave and breastfeeding
breaks.
For health care
workers:
- Inform
working women about the advantages of
breastfeeding.
- Offer
practical advice on combining work and breastfeeding to employers and
working women.
- Offer
to be a community resource to area employers wishing to support, protect
and promote breastfeeding.
- Ensure
that hospital or maternity facilities are also a mother- friendly
workplace.
For environmental
groups:
- Increase public awareness that breastfeeding is environmentally
friendly, whereas bottle-feeding is not!
For women’s groups and policy
makers:
- Demonstrate that mother-friendly workplaces are beneficial to
all women, and all workers.
- Lobby
the government to support child-care and maternity leave
costs.
- Ensure
equal employment opportunities for mothers and pregnant
women.
- Determine whether existing maternity legislation is implemented,
and whether it applies to all women workers.
- Convince employers of the benefits of having a mother friendly
workplace (such as less absenteeism and anxiety, better morale, loyal
committed staff and a healthy labour force in the next
generation).
- In
countries without national maternity legislation, lobby the government
to implement minimum maternity entitlements as recommended by the
International Labour Organization (ILO)
conventions.
- Create
alliances with international labour
federations.
- Link
breastfeeding rights to campaign for human rights, gender equity and
child survival.
Ten Steps to
Creating a Mother-Friendly
Workplace
Every workplace
should:
1. Provide
at least three months paid maternity leave that begins after the baby is
born. Offer other options such as longer maternity leave with partial pay,
or paternity leaves.
2. Offer
flexible work hours to breastfeeding women such as part-time schedules,
lengthened work days to enable longer breaks, and job
sharing.
3. Provide
daily breastfeeding breaks of up to an hour a
day.
4. Support
affordable infant and child-care at the workplace or in the community. For
rural worksites and seasonal work, use mobile child-care
units.
5. Provide
facilities for expressing and refrigerating
breastmilk.
6.
Encourage co-workers and management to have a positive, accepting attitude
toward working women breastfeeding.
7. Keep
the environment clean and safe.
8. Inform
women workers and unions about maternity leave policy and other
rights.
9. Ensure
that women have full job security.
10. Have a
network of supportive women in unions or workers’ groups who can help
women to combine breastfeeding and work.
Tips
for successfully combining work and
breastfeeding
- Take as
much postpartum rest as possible.
- Establish breastfeeding before you return to
work.
- Form a
support group with other working women who
breastfeed;
- Consider co-operative strategies such as sharing
child-care.
- Women
in the informal economy, such as street vendors, can cooperate with each
other to breastfeed their babies.
- If you
are away from your baby for several hours, express breastmilk and have
the baby fed with a cup and spoon. The use of bottles or pacifiers
discourages babies from breastfeeding.
- Practise expressing breastmilk before returning to work.
Expressing breastmilk by hand is easy with practice and convenient for
most women.
- Pumps
for expressing breastmilk may be useful for some
women.
- Expressed breastmilk keeps well for 8 or more hours even in
tropical countries. Milk expressed by a pump does not keep as
well.
- Get
plenty of rest, and eat extra food and drink to maintain your health.
Your diet should be well-balanced and include lots of fruits and
vegetables, carbohydrates, and fluids.
- Have
family members and friends provide extra help while you are
breastfeeding.
- Breastfeed in a comfortable chair or while lying down so that
you can rest.
- If you
are separated from your baby for long hours during the day, breastfeed
more at night. It may be easier to have your baby sleep with
you.
- If you
have flexible work hours, going an hour late, extending your lunch
break, or leaving an hour early can be
helpful.
- Know
your rights at work.
- Join
your local union or worker’s group. Ensure that working women’s issues
such as infant care and breastfeeding are addressed
Resources
"Women, work and breastfeeding", Penny van Esterik, Cornell
International Nutrition Monograph No. 23, Div. of Nutritional Sciences,
Savage Hall, Cornell Uni., Ithaca, NY 14853,
USA.
"The
Politics of Breastfeeding", Gay Palmer, Pandora Press, London, 1986.
INFACT Canada.
"The Working Woman’s Guide to Breastfeeding" . Dana,
N. and A. Price, Simon & Schuster, New York,
1987.
"Of
Cradles and Careers. A guide to reshaping your job to include a baby in
your life" . Lowmon, K., La Leche League International, Franklin Park,
Illinois, 1984.
"Breastfeeding and the Working Mother. A handbook for mothers
to combine work & breastfeeding". Mason, D. and D. Ingersoll,
1986.
"Breastfeeding and Women’s Work: Constraints and
Opportunities". Van Esterik, P. and T. Greiner., in Studies in Family
Planning, Vol 12, No 4, 1981.
"Lactation, Fertility and the Working Women". D. Jelliffe,
et. al. (ed) London: IPPF, 1979 |
