Creating Enabling Environment For Breastfeeding Mothers

Breast milk is the ideal food for infants. It is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and survival as it contains antibodies which help protect infants against many common childhood illnesses.

The milk provides all the energy and nutrients needed for the first months of  life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life. 

However, alot of working mothers cannot effectively breastfeed their babies due to  workplace policies and lack of breastfeeding spaces or creche.

Meanwhile, in commemoration of this year‘s World Breastfeeding Week (WBW), UNICEF Bauchi Field Office has organised a media dialogue on the need to encourage workplace breastfeeding.

The WBW 2023 with the theme: „Enabling Breastfeeding – Making a Difference for Working Parents“, aims to raise awareness about the interplay between workplace breastfeeding and promoting exclusive breastfeeding and growing healthy children.

UNICEF chief of Bauchi field office, Dr. Tushar Rane, who spoke during the media dialogue, identified workplaces challenges to breastfeeding as one of the primary factors responsible for early cessation of breastfeeding, saying that women require sufficient time and support to breastfeed successfully. 

He said “For working mothers, juggling between tasks and breastfeeding may be nearly often impossible.”

According to Rane, Nigeria currently implements two maternity entitlement provisions. “The first, which is recognised at all levels of public service and codified in the Nigerian Labour Act, provides up to 12 weeks of maternity leave with at least 50 percent of salary and, upon return to work, half an hour twice a day during working hours to breastfeed.

“The second, recently adopted by the Federal Public Service and yet to be ratified by the states and local government civil service, is a 16-week maternity leave provision with full pay and two hours off each day to breastfeed up to six months after the employee resumes duty.

“The government and employers must provide the needed assistance for mothers and caregivers including those in the informal sector or on temporary contracts to conveniently breastfeed or support breastfeeding.”

He stressed the need to promote policies that encourage breastfeeding, such as paid maternity leave for six months, as well as paid paternity leave, flexible return-to-work options, regular lactation breaks during working hours and adequate facilities that enable mothers to continue exclusive breastfeeding for six months. 

“When working parents and caregivers have sufficient paid leave, they can meet the essential nutritional needs of their young children,“ he added.

Meanwhile, the chairman, House Committee on Health, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Dr Lawal Dauda said there is an existing law for maternity leave which is three months for breastfeeding mothers but that the state wants to review the law to make it six months, as was approved by the federal government. 

He said “We are waiting for a draft bill from the executive arm so that the State Assembly will subject it to public hearing to engage all stakeholders, traditional leaders, MDAs to get their opinions before the law is passed  by the State House of Assembly.

“The State Primary Healthcare Development Agency is advocating that all the MDAs create a breastfeeding spaces and enabling environment for breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed their children effectively and once the law comes to the floor of the house, we will give it speedy passage.”

Alos, the executive director, Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BSOHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, said the state is trying to create an enabling law to encourage breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed their babies.

Breastfeeding policy is actually coming on board. Bauchi State is about 22 percent breastfeeding coverage and the Nigeria breastfeeding rate is about 29 percent. Its still very low, so we want to make sure that we create enabling law to encourage breastfeeding mothers to breastfeed their baby. 

“Some states like Kaduna and Lagos have already created a law to enable that to happen on exclusive breastfeeding and maternity leave for six months. They also create an enabling environment for the mother to work and as such, we are happy because they involved the head of service of their states, to make sure that all the parastatals under the government and private, create that enabling environment for mothers to breastfeed in privacy. They have also reduced the work hours from 4pm to 1pm, to enable the woman breastfeed. 

They created the father‘s leave, two weeks , to enable him support his wife, it‘s also another thing in the pipeline in Bauchi here, it involves all the stakeholders, the ministry of justice and the state assembly both the media organisations, the religious ad traditional leaders will look at the implications of the law, we realized that there is no stigma around that law so UNICEF has committed to support the creation of enabling environment for the stakeholders to come and look at the law review from Lagos State and Kaduna so we can adopt it,” he explained.

Mohammed called on other states, especially in the North East to also follow, saying they can also follow Kaduna State or Bauchi State to see how they can review the leave from four months to six months. 

On the bill, he said it is still in the elementary, adding that the stakeholders will first brainstorm after which the law will be sent to the State House of Assembly, through the ministry of justice.

He said the Assembly will call for public hearing if there is anybody who is objecting the law. „The state is going to do whatever the  community, the media and the traditional rulers and our partners decide during that dialogue. 

„The executive governor of the Bauchi State has agreed to support the creation of enabling environment for breastfeeding and working class mothers. 

„We want to look at every aspect of the law, to create an enabling environment and flexible hours and the six months maternity leave, these are the things that we want , that is why we are going to look at it critically,“ he explained.