Cape Town - “I am surprised and saddened by how many mothers are nursing festering wounds, and are imploding from the unfair sacrifices they have had to make.”
So says popular 702 and 567 presenter Redi Tlhabi who breast-fed her baby while on air earlier this week, and in doing so prompted a response from women across the country who described their work environments as being hostile to breast-feeding.
Tlhabi was standing in for John Robbie on the early morning shift which began at 4am, and took baby Neo (10 months old) with her to the studio.
She says: “They wrote to express how hostile the work environment has been for breast-feeding and how they had to give it up. With respect, I don’t think a manager who is present in his or her child’s life would dismiss a mother’s wish to nourish a child.”
She said there was “no debate” about what to do under the circumstances, and that she had not done it to invite praise or condemnation.
“Neo is on the breast and I am doing what I have to do. The studio is hardly a baby-friendly place but it is better than me being on air while my baby is screaming at home. No job is worth that,” she said, adding that breast-feeding – despite being so beneficial – is not prevalent enough in South Africa.
“When you look at the figures (eight percent of babies breast-fed in South Africa), it is no wonder those of us who are breast-feeding are treated like creatures from Mars or at worst, dismissed and not accommodated.”
And, she added, “I take exception to this twisted notion that it is the breast-feeding mom who must constantly explain herself and demand her space. Most work and public spaces don’t support us. I was once asked to express. Really? You don’t just switch on a breast pump and out come gallons of milk. Even expressing is a cycle requiring time and effort.”
Marion Stevens, a research associate at the Africa Gender Institute, said that breast-feeding is “convenient, easy and healthy” but that “breasts in middle-class spaces are confused with a particularly conservative sexual and reproductive health, with many shunning public feeding”.
She added, “Surely feeding a baby is the most basic and acceptable exchange, so why engage with a woman’s breasts if they offend you?”
Meanwhile, with it being Breastfeeding Week, the Western Cape Department of Health has launched its Breast is Best campaign which lobbies for exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of life.
Marika Champion, director of communications, says that the department’s campaign on Mxit now has a portal with nearly 17 000 users (up from 9 000 when the campaign started on July 28), and that “the campaign is targeted mostly at young mothers, who are provided with useful information on breast-feeding”.
The campaign promotes exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of the infant’s life followed by the introduction of appropriate complementary foods and the continuation of breast-feeding for two years and beyond.
Cape Times