Create an enabling workplace environment for breastfeeding

By Gilbert Tshitaudzi, Nutrition Manager, Unicef South Africa

Breastfeeding guarantees a safe, nutritious and accessible food source for babies and young children. In many ways, it is the baby’s first vaccine and can prevent various diseases as well as malnutrition.

There is considerable evidence that continuing to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months also promotes the cognitive and sensory development of babies.

Unicef and the WHO recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life, starting within an hour of birth. Continuing to breastfeed exclusively – without any other food – for the first six months promotes sensory and cognitive development and protects babies against infectious and chronic diseases.

Family-friendly policies enable parents and caregivers to provide the best start in life for children; they pay off in healthier, better-educated children, a better-equipped workforce and lead to sustainable growth. Family-friendly policies help workers to reconcile work and family responsibilities and advance the well-being and development of their children.

To advance the well-being of children, Unicef, together with our partners in Government, will join the annual global World Breastfeeding Week commemoration from 1 to 7 August under the theme “Enabling breastfeeding: making a difference for working parents”.

World Breastfeeding Week reminds us of the critical need to protect, promote and support breastfeeding to improve the health, nutrition and development of babies in South Africa.

Despite the prohibition of unfair discrimination featuring prominently in policy and legislation in South Africa, incidents of discrimination continue in the recruitment, employment, and return-to-work of pregnant and breastfeeding women, particularly in the informal economy and in male-dominated industries.

World Breastfeeding Week is an opportunity to mobilise workplaces, governments, policymakers, communities and parents to play their part in empowering families and sustaining breastfeeding-friendly environments in the post-pandemic work life.

Unicef has identified four major policy areas to prioritise:

 Ensure sufficient paid leave to all parents and caregivers, in both the formal and informal economies, to meet the needs of their young children (this includes paid maternity, paternity, and parental leave, and leave to care for sick young children).

 Support for mothers to breastfeed exclusively for the first six months of life, as per World Health Organization and Unicef recommendations, and to continue breastfeeding for as long as they choose.

 Ensuring that all children have access to affordable, good quality childcare and early education.

 Providing child benefits and adequate wages to help families provide for young children.

These policies provide parents and caregivers with the essential time, resources and services needed to recover from giving birth and to ensure secure bonding and attachment with their newborns, creating a foundation for lifelong health.

Supporting breastfeeding in the workplace has significant human and economic benefits:

 Improving the corporate image of businesses, showing that they care about the health and well-being of working women and their families.

 Reducing the amount of leave requests made to attend doctors’ appointments, for both mother and child, as well as the amount of sick leave.

 Reducing maternity-related absenteeism, which can translate into 30–70% fewer absences.

 Increasing the retention of female workers, as they feel more supported by the company.

 Reducing the employee turnover rates and saving the company money by eliminating the need to hire and retrain new staff members.

Unicef commends the South African government for making progress in enacting maternity protection laws, particularly the adoption of the revised International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Maternity Protection Convention 2000 (No. 183) on maternity protection.

These laws make provisions for stronger maternity entitlements which include maternity leave; cash and medical benefits during maternity leave; health protection at the workplace; employment protection (job security); non-discrimination; breastfeeding break/s, and childcare support. Access to all these components of maternity protection improves lactation for working women.

Breastfeeding support is therefore essential for the health and development of children, for mothers and for broader society. Let us use World Breastfeeding Week to improve the knowledge and awareness of employees’ maternity protection rights and employers’ responsibilities.