Women need support to breastfeed exclusively

On Tuesday morning, a woman knocked at the door of the consultation room and peeped in for the third time in less than 10 minutes. She was getting impatient and cared less that I was attending to another client.

I had to terminate the counselling session to avoid further disruptions.

“Sorry but our colleague is in severe pain, we have defied the nurse’s order to be patient,” the woman said as she walked into the consultation room followed by a group of five other women.

They were all holding and supporting a patient they had escorted to the clinic. They helped her settle on a seat. She was sweating and shaking.

“She failed to take our advice. She is the youngest in our office and refused to learn from the experiences of her elders, now look at what she has to go through!” exclaimed one of the women.

Jacky, the patient, had been on maternity leave. It was her second day at the office after three months of leave. This had been her first delivery and she was juggling between motherhood and her profession.

She was an accountant at a public institution and as expected, there was a lot of work waiting for her from the moment she reported back to work.

“But that is not the problem; I can manage the big load of work and I am used to leaving the office late,” she explained, “My problem is the pain in my breasts and wrong advice from my friends.”

Jacky had been breastfeeding exclusively as recommended by health workers when she was on maternity leave. However, upon reporting back to work, the frequent breastfeeding had to stop suddenly.

“But milk has continued to flow and my breasts are heavy and as hard as stone. The pain is unbearable!” she cried out writhing in pain. Beads of sweat rolled from her braided hair down her cheeks and landed

on the already wet collar of her blouse.

The point of departure between her and her colleagues was that they advised her to milk herself in the toilet and store the milk in her handbag for her baby’s use when she returned home after work. The

difficulty for her was that the toilet was dirty and unhygienic, so not suitable for expressing milk for her baby. Further, she needed a fridge, not her handbag, to store the milk yet there was none in the office.

“Tell me doctor, if your tea girl made your tea in a dirty public toilet would you drink it?” she asked frowning, to which I vigorously shook my head, “so why do people think that my baby can drink milk from

the toilet?” She was also worried that the milk would go stale and make her baby sick if not kept in a fridge.

According to the World Health Organisation, children should be exclusively breastfed for six months. This means that the baby should be given nothing apart from breast milk, not even water, for the first six months of life.

The only exception is medicine in case the baby gets sick and has to be treated. Weaning starts after six months when new and easily digestible foods are introduced progressively as the baby continues to breastfeed.

By the age of two years, the baby should be able to eat most of the family foods and it is only then that breastfeeding can be stopped, although it can continue for as long as the mother wants.

CHANGE IS COMING

Sticking to this recommendation has been found to prevent malnutrition in children. Further, the immunity of the baby develops optimally and common illnesses such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and other

infections become rare.

The baby also grows socially and psychologically since breastfeeding enhances bonding and imparts a feeling of love and care to the baby. Research has also shown that babies that are appropriately breastfed

suffer less from common diseases such as diabetes later in life. Breastfeeding therefore sets the pace for a better quality of life when the child reaches adulthood.

Despite all these benefits, most social and workplace settings do not encourage breastfeeding as recommended. For one, maternity leave ends before the period for exclusive breastfeeding ends and at most

organisations, the conditions are such that mothers cannot have their babies with them at the workplace.

Even if a mother was to express and keep the milk, there is often no place for that to be done safely in many offices.

However, this is all set to change once the Health Bill that was recently passed by parliament is signed into law. The bill has a breastfeeding clause that makes it mandatory for all organisations to set up special

breastfeeding areas for nursing mothers in the workplace, complete with comfortable seats, sockets for breast pumps, fridges and cooling facilities and all other facilities that are necessary to keep a

breastfeeding mother comfortable while breastfeeding or expressing milk at work.

The Bill also requires employers to give nursing mothers breaks specifically for breastfeeding or expressing milk in addition to the regular breaks like lunch break. However, the breaks are limited to up to an hour for every eight hours of work.

“This means that once the law is implemented, mothers will have a safe space to breastfeed or express milk and store it while at work. I hope this will extend to having nannies on board to watch and play with

babies as mothers work,” I consoled Jacky as I gently expressed the infected milk out of her breasts, while she sobbed in pain.

I also prescribed antibiotics and pain relievers. I was glad that her dilemma and all her questions about how to combine work with breastfeeding would soon be answered once the law on breastfeeding at work is implemented.