More rooms needed for moms - Too many workplaces not catering for lactating women
Published:Wednesday | October 3, 2018 | 12:00 AMNadine Wilson-Harris
Concerned that many lactating mothers have little option but to flush the breast milk they produce while at work, Stephen Robinson, acting regional nutritionist for the South East Regional Health Authority, has joined the call for more baby-friendly workplaces.
Robinson who is a member of the Kingston and St Andrew Infant and Young Child Feeding Committee and the National Infant and Young Child Feeding Committee, said while most managers agree that the breast is best, the process of expressing breast milk is viewed, for the most part, as an activity that should be done at home.
“The whole breastfeeding idea, in my view, is not fully sold in the society. They will say yes, breastfeeding is good, but practically, it may seem to them that it is a challenge. The mother is going to take time from doing her job to express and it is going to cut down productivity,” Robinson told The Sunday Gleaner.
He said some of the women discard the breast milk because they do not have an area to store it at work while other women discard the milk because she had to express it in the bathroom stall and she might not feel this was hygienic.
Women are encouraged to breastfeed their babies exclusively for the first six months, but some women find this to be challenging since they have to return to work after three months and Robinson noted that it doesn’t take much for a woman’s milk to start flowing while she is on the job.
“Once you think lovingly of the baby, your milk can flow and your clothes start to get wet,” said Robinson.
He applauded the organisations which have already established breastfeeding rooms.
These include the Bustamante Hospital for Children, the National Commercial Bank, Nestle Jamaica Limited and the JMMB group which was recognised by the Ministry of Health recently for its commitment to promoting and maintaining good young child and feeding practises.
“Moving into 2019, we definitely want to target those workplaces that we have no evidence that they have that kind of a set up,” added Robinson.
He said members of the committee have already started visiting those workplaces where the breastfeeding rooms have been established.
“The next phase is to move into work sites where there is nothing of the sort set up. First there will be the sensitisation. We have to sit down with the stakeholders and explain why it is important. A mother can want to breastfeed and she is living far from home or from where the caregiver is, but her milk is just flowing,” said Robinson.
He noted that getting women to exclusively breastfeed for the first six months still remains a challenge overall, but the committee, at the parish, as well as the national level, has been hosting sensitisation sessions with mothers of newborns.