The plight of breastfeeding mothers at workplace

The first week of this month marked yet another global event, World Breastfeeding Week, which was celebrated from 1st-7th of August. This year’s theme was ‘Breastfeeding: A winning goal for life’.

Breastfeeding gives children a good start to life since breast milk contains all the vitamins and nutrients needed in the first six months of life. Breast milk is packed with disease-fighting substances that protect a child from illness.

However, despite the benefits in breast milk, breastfeeding has never been an easy task for working mothers in Tanzania. This is because mothers are forced to leave their babies three months after delivery to resume work.

The three months’ maternity leave is normally viewed by many women as being insufficient. First, time flies so quickly and secondly, mothers seem to leave the child while it is still too young to be left in the care of strangers in most cases. And most importantly, cutting off it’s main food supply, breast milk.

Doctors strongly advise on exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months before introducing other food.

This is usually impossible as working mothers have to report back to work when the baby is only three months old. Hence, they have no choice but to introduce formula and porridge for the baby to feed on while they work.

Very few working mothers can afford to pump enough breast milk to last for as long as they are away.

And expressing breast milk has its own challenges as far as cleanliness and storage are concerned.

Sound Living brings you stories of working women and how they cope with breastfeeding while they work.

Blessing Paul

Blessing is a 36-year-old mother of three. She was working for some private company when she gave birth to her first child.

“The first thing my boss wanted to know when I resumed work after maternity leave was if I was breastfeeding. When I said yes, she asked me how I was going to manage,” says Blessing adding; “Imagine that coming from a female boss with children herself,” wondered Blessing.

To please her boss, Blessing had to incur the cost of hiring a taxi during lunch every day to go breastfeed her child in Sinza and return back to work in town. She says this was not helpful enough since at times the baby would not breast feed when she got home.

Unfortunately that time, Blessing was not aware of the labour laws. The law allows mothers to work half day in the first three months after maternity leave to give them more time to breastfeed their babies. Her employer seems to have taken advantage of her ignorance.

Blessing’s child stopped breastfeeding on her own at six months. “She first rejected one of the breasts before stopping completely. I tasted milk from the breast she rejected and compared it with milk from the other breast and found they tasted different.”

Blessing says milk from the breast her daughter rejected was stale. She believes her milk went bad because of the prolonged period she would stay without breastfeeding.

Irene Shadrack

Irene, 32, is still breastfeeding her third child who is 15 months old. The mother of three who works as a journalist wishes she had more time to exclusively breastfeed her child for the first six months.

“My job is not very friendly when it comes to breastfeeding. I spend up to 12 hours at work. I don’t get enough time to eat well and I’m sure this affects my milk production,” says Irene.

During her first pregnancy, Irene was sensitised by her mother and her doctor on the importance of breastfeeding. She learnt how breast milk is rich in substances that fight diseases and protect a child from illness.

Through this education and her own internet research, Irene says she feels bad that she now has a low supply of milk due to the unfriendly environment at work.

Sometimes Irene who travels on duty upcountry has to take her daughter and the house help with her.

While there, she spends most of the time in the field and only gets to breastfeed her daughter late in the evening when she returns from the field.

When in Dar, Irene sometimes works late in order to meet deadlines. This means being away from her child for too long. Sometimes she takes work home with her and works until midnight and has to be up early the following day as usual.

“There are times when I wish I could stop breastfeeding since my daughter is at the moment not getting enough milk. I have lost weight due to a lot of work, breastfeeding without eating proper meals, and I just feel tired most of the time. But since I understand the benefits of breastfeeding, this will keep me going for another three months when Anet turns a year and a half,” she says.

Irene thinks it would be better if both employers and family members were educated on the importance of breastfeeding so they could make it possible for breastfeeding mothers to do so stress-free.

Mariam Abdallah

Mariam, 30, is a nurse. Being a health worker, one would expect her to breastfeed for two years like they (health workers) preach to mothers. On the contrary, she just breastfed her first child for 10 months only. The pressure at work was too much that she had to wean her baby so soon.

Her work involves night shifts and there was no way she could take her baby to work with her at night. The hospital environment is not conducive for such an arrangement.

“It is so unfair for mothers,” Mariamu says referring to her work environment. “I just decided to stop breastfeeding to avoid too much stress both at work and at home,” she says.

While at work, sometimes Mariam whose job is taking care of patients never gets time to eat. And as tired as she normally is after work, she has to supervise almost everything at home. This leaves her too exhausted to breastfeed comfortably.

Mariam says it’s high time the government reviewed the breastfeeding policy to enable women to do so without stress. This she says is for the benefit of both the mother, the child and the nation at large.

According to Unicef Tanzania, this year’s World Breastfeeding Theme, ‘Breastfeeding: A winning goal for life’ is linked to Millennium Development Goal number four on reducing child mortality. Globally, the number of children under-five dying from preventable causes declined by a remarkable 47 per cent since 1990.

Under-five mortality decreased from 81 per 1,000 live births in 2010 to 54 per 1,000 live births in 2012. The decline in child mortality can be attributed to, among other factors, improved breastfeeding practices in the country, according to Unicef.

The proportion of children under six months who benefit from exclusive breastfeeding increased from 41 per cent in 2005 to 50 per cent in 2010. However, the reality is that one out of 20 Tanzanian children still dies before their fifth birthday from preventable causes.

Unicef Tanzania Deputy Representative, Paul Edwards said breastfeeding week presents an opportune moment to reflect on strategies to save children’s lives and ensure children are provided with the best start in life.

“Unicef is focusing on breastfeeding as the most effective and inexpensive way of saving a child’s life. But with only a half of all children under six months benefiting from exclusive breastfeeding in Tanzania, strong leadership in promoting and supporting breastfeeding is essential,” says Edwards.

Supporting breastfeeding

Mariamu the nurse concedes but points out that it is never easy for a working mother to exclusively breastfeed her child for six months without clashing with her boss.

“I managed exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months but I can assure you it was an uphill task. I used to clash with my in charge almost every day. But at least I never used to skip a meal like I do now. I used to pump the milk and leave it at home,” she says.

According to Mariamu, her boss wanted her to even start night shifts as soon as she returned to work from maternity leave. It was when she wanted to raise the matter with her boss’s superiors that she was allowed to work till 4pm.

Although expressing worked well for her, Mariam cautions that it can be dangerous if the whole process is not done in a hygienic way. Even the handling of the milk by the child’s caretaker needs to be in a very hygienic way.

Further information from Unicef shows that, breastfeeding supports a child’s ability to learn and helps prevent obesity and chronic diseases later in life.

Breastfed children fall ill less often than non-breastfed children resulting in large health care savings. Apart from the benefits to the baby, mothers who breastfeed exclusively are less likely to become pregnant in the first six months following delivery, recover faster from giving birth, and return to their pre-pregnancy weight sooner.

The information further shows that, despite these well documented benefits of breastfeeding, only 50 per cent of children aged less than six months in Tanzania are exclusively breastfed and 49 per cent of children are breastfed within the first hour of birth. This is partly due to general lack of a supportive environment for breastfeeding mothers.

Scientific evidence shows that children who are exclusively breastfed are 14 times more likely to survive the first six months of life than non-breastfed children. Starting breastfeeding on the first day after birth can reduce the risk of newborn deaths by up to 45 per cent.

World Breastfeeding Week was celebrated in Iringa with various activities in health facilities and communities. The government in collaboration with Unicef and other partners is committed to intensify its efforts to promote optimal breastfeeding across the country.