More and more mothers are dropping the baby formula bottle and choosing to breastfeed instead as studies come out touting its health benefits. Breastfeeding not only reduces the risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and diabetes for the mother, but babies who breastfeed are less likely to have diarrhoea bouts and respiratory infections because they have stronger immune systems.
Unfortunately, many women when they return to work after maternity leave often stop breastfeeding, frequently because they suffer from a lack of support or encounter bad breastfeeding-friendly workplaces.
Employment gives mothers the resources to strengthen their households’ food security, which in turn improves the likelihood of breastfeeding, but unfortunately, an unsuitable environment continues to hinder a larger percentage of breastfeeding mothers.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria Country Representative, Cristian Munduate, in a statement in Abuja to commemorate World Breastfeeding Week, said that only nine per cent of Nigerian organisations have a workplace breastfeeding policy to support breastfeeding mothers.
Munduate said: “Shockingly, only nine per cent of organisations have a workplace breastfeeding policy, with only 1.5 per cent in the public sector. Women in the informal sector have nearly no support for breastfeeding.”
Women make up 20 million out of the 46 million workforce strength in Nigeria, with 95 per cent of them in the informal sector.
Presently, only 7 out of 36 states provide six months fully paid maternity leave and only 34 per cent of children aged 0 to 6 months are exclusively breastfed as recommended by UNICEF, meaning that Nigeria is still far from reaching the World Health Assembly’s 70 per cent target by 2030.
Breastfeeding has enormous benefits for both the mother and the child. For the child, breast milk contains nutrients with the required composition to meet the changing physiological needs of a growing infant. In addition, it contains antibodies that boost immunity and fatty acids that boost brain development.
Many medical experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, strongly recommend breastfeeding exclusively, without water, for six months.
Moreover, how often the child is breastfed depends on whether the baby prefers small, frequent meals or longer feedings. This tends to change as the baby grows. Most newborns often want to feed every two hours. By two months, feeding every three to four hours is common, and by six months, most babies feed every four to five hours.
Research, however, shows that a mother’s working patterns significantly influence how long and how frequently she breastfeeds. However, in balancing breastfeeding demands and work, Chizoba Steve-Edemba, Nutrition Specialist at the UNICEF Country Office, Abuja suggested that working mothers be determined to breastfeed, get support to take care of the baby in-between the feeding time and negotiate periods to go and breastfeed with her employers or supervisors.
She added, “That is why we are advocating for a workplace policy on breastfeeding that will support mothers back from maternity leave to have a place where they can put their children, like a crèche, and be able to continue breastfeeding.”
Mrs Steve-Edemba said if all states in Nigeria implement the 6-month for maternity leave, ensuring working mothers also exclusively breastfeed their babies in their first six months of life would not be a challenge after which they then later breastfeed beyond 2 years.
Even beyond six months, she said where provisions are made for lactating mothers, they can still express their milk while in the office and keep or send it back to the child, as the case may be required.
“I have colleagues that when going for external meetings, say two to three days, who will express breast milk for that period and leave for their babies. While on that trip, they will keep expressing and storing their breast milk for their return home.
“Once, they are back, they commence breastfeeding again and the stored milk is also fed to their babies. Of course, breast milk when properly stored at room temperature will not go bad for 24 hours. In the refrigerator, it can keep for 72 hours and it can be frozen for months.”
Now even Chevron nursing mothers while away on a domestic or international business trip easily refrigerate and ship breast milk home to their babies from anywhere in the world. Fully covered by Chevron as a business expense, milk delivery services cover storage, refrigeration and expedited shipping.
Mrs Steve-Edemba declared that a workplace breastfeeding policy ensures sufficient paid leave and access to things like a breastfeeding room to provide a private and sanitary place for breastfeeding, to express and store their milk during work hours.
It also affords a nursing mother flexible breaks to accommodate breastfeeding or milk expression for her child. The staff are expected to provide an atmosphere of loving support for breastfeeding mothers. These support mechanisms can include awareness creation on breastfeeding, employment protection, and non-discrimination.
According to her, “a workplace breastfeeding policy is a win-win scenario for employer, employee and the country as it cuts down on absenteeism mothers, increases retention of the female workforce, ensures a family-friendly workplace, guarantees economic returns and supports a woman’s need to breastfeed her baby.”
So, it will take the support of family, employers, government, and indeed, all of society for every woman, regardless of her employment status to have the opportunity to breastfeed and/or provide breast milk for her child.
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