Breastfeeding for working mothers

1. “Challenges and Solutions during breastfeeding
for working parents- Myths and Barriers”
‘Celebrating Brastfeeding week’
1-7 Aug 2023
Prof Dr. Smriti Arora
Principal, CENER, AIIMS Rishikesh

2. Introduction
• WHO has recognized the
need for increased support to:
• improve breastfeeding duration
and
• initiation rates
• recommending women
breastfeed for two years
• Breast milk is best for baby

3. • Breastfeeding impacts families,
communities, and the economy.
(prevents pneumonia,
diarrhoea, child deaths,
hospitalization)
• Today, 55% of children under six
months are exclusively breastfed
in the country. While this should
be celebrated, progress must
continue so that all children are
able to thrive.

4. Introduction
• Studies have found that breastfeeding incidence and
duration were lower among employed, working-age
women
• Women planning to work full-time postpartum were less
likely to initiate breastfeeding
• than women who planned to work part-time and
• women were more likely to cease breastfeeding the first
month prior or subsequent to returning to work

5. Challenges
• Facility of paid maternity leave
• Lack of flexibility in the work schedule to allow for milk expression
• Lack of accommodations to express and/or store human milk
• Concerns about support from supervisors and colleagues
• Poor family and social support
• Lack of knowledge- about techniques of bf, advantages of bf
• Lactation problems
• Conflicting advice from family, friends, media

6. Challenges…
• Moreover, many people, including health professionals, believe that because
commercially prepared formula has been enhanced in recent years, infant
formula is equivalent to breast milk in terms of its health benefits; however, this
belief is incorrect.
• bottle feeding is viewed by many as the “normal” way to feed infants.
• Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods (Regulation of
Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 1992
• Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), has been widely involved and
successful in monitoring the IMS Act. BPNI holds events to raise awareness of
infant formula risks, develops monitoring tools, regularly monitors product
labeling and promotional activities of the infant formula companies, periodically
reports to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, and files cases before
law, if necessary.

7. Solutions ….. ?

8. Maternity leave
• Maternity leave and workplace accommodations are critical
features of environments that enable breastfeeding.
• More than half a billion working women are not given essential
maternity protections in national laws
• Just 20% of countries require employers to provide employees
with paid breaks and facilities for breastfeeding or expressing
milk
• Fewer than half of infants under 6 months of age are exclusively
breastfed.

10. How long is paid maternity leave in India?
• The Indian Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 stipulates that new mothers are
entitled to take six months or 26 weeks of paid leave for their first two children.
• For each subsequent child, the mother can take three months or 12 weeks of
leave, which is also fully paid for by the employer.
• This law prohibits employers from discriminating against or terminating the
employment of pregnant employees or those who have recently given birth.
• The Act also extends the same benefits to commissioning, and surrogate
mothers, who are eligible for the entire maternity leave salary for up to 180 days
or 26 weeks.
• On the other hand, Adoptive mothers are entitled to 12 weeks of leave, starting
from the day they adopt a child under three months old.

11. Is maternity leave fully paid in India?
• In India, as per the Indian Maternity Benefit Act 1961, employers
must pay their female employees their full salary during maternity
leave.
• This Act prohibits any form of discrimination or hiring practices based
on an employee's pregnancy or childbirth status.
• Employers may also provide additional maternity benefits or leave
days based on the employment contract or applicable laws.
• However, an employee must have worked for the employer for at
least 80 days in the 12 months prior to delivery to be eligible for these
benefits.

12. Can I take maternity leave at 6 months
pregnant?
• There is no specific date when a female employee can take maternity
leave in India.
• However, under the Maternity Benefit Act, a woman employee is
entitled to maternity leave provided she has been employed in the
organization for 80 days during the past 12 months.

13. Paternity leave
• A male Government servant (including an apprentice) with less
than two surviving children, may be granted Paternity Leave for
a continuous period of 15 days, during the confinement of his
wife for birth, i.e. up to 15 days before, or up to six months from
the date of delivery of the child.

14. Solutions….
What policy makers can do ?
Policymakers can make breastfeeding and work, work by
• Legislating at least 18 weeks, preferably more than 6 months, paid
maternity leave
• Ensuring employers provide paid time off and a dedicated space for
breastfeeding or expressing milk after this period
• Ensuring all women have access to maternity entitlements, including those
in the informal sector or on limited contracts
• Tackling employment-related discrimination against women, including
during and after pregnancy and birth

15. Employers and managers can make
breastfeeding and work, work by
• Providing maternity leave that – at minimum - meets
national requirements
• Providing time and space for breastfeeding or
expressing and storing breastmilk
➢dedicated pumping room
➢an empty office or a converted storage room, this
nursing room should ideally lock from the inside,
have covered windows (or none at all), include a
power supply, and a comfortable place to sit.
➢ a place to safely refrigerate expressed breastmilk
until closing time.
Breastfeeding friendly site

16. • Baby care rooms at airports, metro
stations, temples

17. • Providing options that reduce separation of
women from their babies after maternity
leave, such as:
• Flexible work schedules
• On-site childcare – day care/creche
(Rajiv Gandhi National Crèche Scheme for the Children of Working
Mothers, 2006)
• Teleworking
• Part-time work
• Letting mothers bring their babies to work

18. Colleagues can help make
breastfeeding and work, work by
• Being supportive of flexible work
arrangements when women return
to work
• Be compassionate, ask if she needs
help
• Championing women’s rights in the
workplace
• Support each another

19. Building up the knowledge of mothers
• Advantages of breastfeeding
• Hand hygiene
• Expression of milk
• Storage of milk
• Proper cleaning of containers
• Using cup and spoon
• Caregiver training – cameras in phones to monitor baby and nanny

20. Preparation For Expressing Breast Milk At Work
• Sit at a clean space with privacy
• Ensure that breastpump is properly sterilised before use,
• may pre-sterilise your breast pump and milk bottles at home
• Think about your baby to stimulate milk flow
• Re-sterilise the pump after use
• Stimulate milk flow by massaging the breast
• Prepare an ice-cooler box with ice packs to store the bottle of expressed milk if
there is no refrigerator available at your workplace
• Gain support at your workplace by informing your employer and colleagues that
you are expressing milk for your baby. This helps to avoid any misunderstanding
should you need to excuse yourself to express breast milk during work

21. •Soap and hot water
•Scrub
•Rinse
•Air dry
•Store safely

22. Information to working moms
Storage of milk …. CDC
Freshly expressed or pumped milk can be stored:
• At room temperature (77°F or colder) for up to 4
hours.
• In the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
• In the deep freezer for about 6 months is best; up to
12 months is acceptable.
• Teach the caregiver about feeding the baby- use
katori/cup spoon, avoid feeding bottles

24. Solving lactation problems
• sore nipples, engorged breasts,
mastitis, leaking milk, pain, and failure
to latch on by the infant, not enough
milk, incorrect techniques of bf, lack of
confidence
• Offer professional advise
• Using absorbent padding for leaking
• Hot compress for engorgement

26. • Australian Senator Larissa Waters has
become the first politician to breastfeed
in the nation's parliament, May 2017

28. Summary
Let’s make breastfeeding and work, work!
Breastmilk is baby’s right
Give correct knowledge to mothers
Teach them skills
Be compassionate, provide support
Restructure the work environment

29. • Making breastfeeding at work, work, makes societies work!
Breastfeeding provides vital health and nutritional benefits for
children with positive lifelong impacts, building healthier
populations – and workforces - for the future.
• Women shouldn’t have to choose between breastfeeding their
children and their jobs. Breastfeeding support is possible
regardless of workplace, sector, or contract type.
• Effective maternity protections improve children’s and women’s
health and increase breastfeeding

30. References
• Office of the Surgeon General (US); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US); Office on Women's
Health (US). The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding. Rockville (MD): Office of the
Surgeon General (US); 2011. Barriers to Breastfeeding in the United States. Available from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK52688/
• https://internationalbreastfeedingjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13006-021-00359-3

31. Thank you