For many new mothers, the decision to breast-feed their babies comes with a strong sense of closeness and bonding.
Breast milk is widely recognised as the best source of nutrition for infants, providing all the essential nutrients they need in the first six months of life.
However, for working mothers, the challenge of balancing breastfeeding with their busy work schedules often leads to a difficult decision or even giving up on breast-feeding altogether.
Working parents, especially those with a new baby, face the ongoing struggle of maintaining their careers while raising a family. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to manage feeding their infants when they return to work.
Unfortunately, many new moms see this as a major obstacle and end up not even attempting to breastfeed or giving up prematurely.
World Breast-feeding Week is celebrated every year from 1 to 7 August.
This year’s theme, Enabling Breast-feeding, aims to make a difference for working parents, highlighting that workplace challenges are the most common reasons for never breast-feeding or stopping before the recommended first six months of life.
Breast-feeding plays a vital role in both infant and maternal health, offering numerous benefits for both mother and child.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends exclusive breast-feeding for the first six months of a baby’s life, followed by continued breast-feeding along with an introduction of complementary foods until the age of two or beyond.
Dr Chantell Witten, spokesperson for ADSA (The Association for Dietetics in South Africa) and a representative from Wits University, has highlighted the low exclusive breastfeeding rates in South Africa.
According to data from 2016, breastfeeding rates dropped from 44% in the first month after birth to only 28.9% at 2 to 3 months of age, which coincides with the time-frame when many mothers return to work.
The issue of returning to work poses significant challenges for working mothers who want to continue breastfeeding. Juggling work responsibilities and finding suitable places and times to express and store breast milk can be stressful and overwhelming.
Lack of support, both from employers and society as a whole, further compounds the problem.
In efforts to reverse this trend, South Africa included the Code of Good Practice on the protection of employees during pregnancy and after the birth of a child in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
South Africa is one of only 42 countries in the world to mandate breast-feeding support in the workplace.
Employers are required to allow breast-feeding employees two 30-minute breaks per day for breast-feeding or expressing milk, every working day for the first six months of their child’s life.
“Despite the legislation, research shows that many companies are not making provision for mothers to express breast milk at their workplaces, and it is hard for the government to enforce compliance within the private sector environments.
“What is also missing is that we are not hearing parents demanding these provisions to support breastfeeding in the workplace.
“We need to create awareness of this provision and build breastfeeding-friendly work environments that proactively reduce social stigma and instead promote breastfeeding as a vital part of wellness and healthy lifestyles,” explains Dr Witten.
Professor Lisanne du Plessis from the Division of Human Nutrition, Stellenbosch University, co-authored a 2020 research study on businesses with more than 50 employees in the Breede Valley of the Western Cape.
According to Professor du Plessis, breastfeeding support practices are limited and inadequate.
For instance, there was a lack of common breastfeeding support practices such as on-site or nearby childcare facilities, access to breastfeeding counsellors, promotion of the benefits of breastfeeding to employees and provision of private spaces for expressing breast milk.
“In addition, workplace breastfeeding policies were not common and were mostly found in the public rather than the private sector. Under half of our research sites did not provide the mandated time for expressing breast milk at work.
“I sense that this study reflects what is happening beyond the Western Cape as well since many of the workplaces included in the study have branches in other provinces.
“Legislated breastfeeding break times most definitely need to be monitored to ensure better compliance with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act in South African workplaces,” said Professor du Plessis
Is your workplace breast-feeding friendly?
A workplace doesn’t necessarily have to be hostile towards breastfeeding to cause mothers to give up efforts to continue to breastfeed their babies.
We’ve all heard the stories of new mothers uncomfortably trying to express breast milk in workplace toilet cubicles or fearing co-workers walking in on them when they try to find a private space.
ADSA registered dietitian and international nutrition consultant, Andiswa Ngqaka, affirms, that it is important that there is recognition and appreciation in the corporate environment that breast milk is the natural food for optimal health and growth of young children in South Africa.
Many parents are employed and therefore supporting the breastfeeding goals of employees is part of employee wellness.
As part of its efforts to create a breastfeeding-friendly workplace, Ngqaka highlights the following strategies:
Complying with the South African law by providing two 30-minute breaks for breastfeeding or expressing breast milk
Management support for providing a breast-feeding friendly workplace that is sensitive to the needs of breast-feeding employees
Formulating, communicating and enforcing a supportive workplace breast-feeding policy including breast-feeding education and promotion in general employee wellness and health initiatives
Providing parents with access to breast-feeding education and lactation consultations
Providing clean, secure and private spaces in the workplace for expressing milk and breast-feeding, which preferably includes access to a fridge for storing breast milk expressed at work
Hearing parents’ voices when it comes to their individual breastfeeding goals and challenges
Adopting a flexible approach to be as supportive of breastfeeding employees as possible, particularly during their baby’s first six months of life.